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THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS; 



OR 



SKETCHES OF THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIFE OF 
THE OLD EGYPTIANS. 



BY 



.v" 



DR. MAX ( -TTHLEMANN, 

Instructor in Egyptian Antiquities in the University of Gottingen; 

Decorated with the Gold Medal for Science, of the King 

of Prussia; Member of the German Asiatic, and of 

the Historico-Theological Society at Leipsic. 




*7 



PHILADELPHIA : 
B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

22 and 24 North Fourth Street. 
1858. 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

E. GOODRICH SMITH, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of 
Columbia. 






<* 



TRANSLATOR'S NOTICE. 



Egypt has been truly called the land of wonders. The 
interest felt in it and its early history is seen in the great 
variety of forms in which the discoveries of modern times 
have been spread before the public, the discussions excited 
among the learned respecting its chronology, and many ques- 
tions connected wtth its relations to sacred and profane his- 
tory. Ever since the discovery by Champ ollion and Dr. 
Young of the Key to the Hieroglyphics, there have been in 
training, especially in Europe and Great Britain, a class of 
investigators called Egyptologists. While equally acknow- 
ledging the importance of the results of the research, they 
differ very considerably as to the truth of the positions as- 
sumed on many of the points in question maintained by one 
another. The two great schools in Germany probably are 
those of Lepsius and Brugsch on the one side, and Seyf- 
farth, with the author of the present work, Max Uhlemann, 
on the other, — Uhlemann being somewhat in the middle- 
ground, leaning toward Seyffarth. At least they may be 
regarded as the most prominent representatives of these 
. classes. Little, comparatively, has been known on this side 
of the Atlantic except of the former, that of Lepsius. His 
authority has been appealed to as decisive, especially by some 
who appear to aim with not a little earnestness in destroying 
or impairing the credibility of the early Scripture History. 
It seems desirable therefore that the reading public in this 



IV TRANSLATORS NOTICE. 

country should be introduced to some of the authors of the 
other school. Uhlemann has written a number of treatises 
and reviews on the various subjects relating to Ancient 
Egypt. The volume which is now presented in an English 
dress has recently made its appearance in Germany, and is 
well adapted in a few pages to convey to the reader a sketch 
of the manners and customs, religious belief and history of 
Egypt as it appeared long before the Christian Era. The 
Author's design is carried out by a three days' sojourn in a 
sort of vision in Old Memphis, during which a variety of 
scenes and incidents pass before him. His sketches of what 
he saw are enlivened by occasional short tales or descriptive 
occurrences as related to him, having for their object to illus- 
trate the former or then condition of different classes of the 
people. It is thus instructive and amusing. The sketches 
are lively, and interspersed with information derived from his 
studies, evidently bearing the marks of truthfulness. It was 
this feature of its reliableness, and at the same time its adapta- 
tion to popular readers, which led the Translator to feel that 
it might be usefully given to the public in the form in which 
it now appears. The Author by foot-notes furnishes refer- 
ences to his authorities, and but for the additional expense 
the volume would have been improved by the insertion of 
wood-cuts and quotations from the writers mentioned. His 
more learned discussions are thrown into Notes at the end of 
the book, where too is embodied a variety of information 
which may interest the general as well as the more learned 
reader. 

As the Author has not fixed definitely the period of his 
sojourn in the Old Capital, and as it preserves its character . 
of a transportation from the present day to an ancient period, 
there is a sort of blending of the two states of consciousness 
or periods perceptible in the conversations that occasions a 
little ambiguity thus easily accounted for, a deficiency which 
might have been remedied by more care in the management 



TRANSLATOR S NOTICE. V 

of the story. Still it is hoped that it may be found useful, 
and a pleasing addition to the means of information relating 
to antiquity. 

As a translation it is believed to be a faithful transcript of 
the original. The Translator has bestowed not a little care 
in the effort to reproduce it so that the English reader may 
have the full benefit of Dr. Uhlemann's learning and skill in 
his work. He hopes that his opinion of its worth may be 
justified by the reception it may meet with, and should it be 
thus successful, may perhaps further present to the public the 
Author's more systematic and learned work "Thoth, &e." 
often referred to in these pages. All the merit he claims is 
to have done a service to some, by introducing to them in a 
mainly faithful translation a book deserving notice whose 
pages of interest might not otherwise be within their reach. 

E. Goodrich Smith. 

Washington, D. C. 1857. 



PREFACE. 



When the Author the past year submitted to the judg- 
ment of his readers a small treatise on the Egyptian Sciences, 
— Thoth, oder die Wissenschaften der Alten J^gypter, Got- 
tingen, 1835, 8, — and was rewarded by acknowledgments 
from many quarters, he formed the determination to sketch 
also, in a more agreeable as well as instructive method, the 
private life of this original people, claiming for itself at the 
present day a general interest on account of the researches 
of numerous learned men. The romantic method and form 
chosen for this work needs no apology or justification ; since 
similar portraitures of Grecian and Roman Antiquity — as 
for example Barthelemy's " Voyage de Jeune Anarcharsis en 
Greece;" Becker's "Gallus" and "Charicles," bright models, 
though not equalled in the following work — have found ap- 
proval and in the highest degree excited the interest of their 
readers. The work which now makes its appearance, craving- 
indulgence, must not be regarded as the picture of fancy of 
an idle hour, nor as invented and baseless fable ; the quota- 
tions continually given prove that everything related and 
sketched rests on the testimonies of classic authors, and Old 



Vlll PREFACE. 

Egyptian representations and wall-paintings, which the Au- 
thor has sought to combine and blend into a true and life-like 
picture. 

The Old Egyptian wall-paintings in accordance with whic 
most of the scenes are truly delineated may be found copied 
in the " Description de PEgypt," in the works of Rosellini, 
and in Wilkinson's " Manners and Customs of the Ancient 
Egyptians," &c. Some points which are only incidentally 
touched upon or alluded to in the text — as for example those 
relating particularly to the Book of the Dead, (Todtenbuch,) 
its Contents and Editions ; the primitive history of Egypt ; 
style of building ; Sesostris ; Apis ; the Sacred Cats ; the 
Phoenix ; the origin of the City of Memphis and its Temple 
of Ptah ; hieroglyphic writing, &c. — are treated more at 
large in the Xotes or Appendix at the end of the book, to 
which the numerals in the text refer. This has been done 
for the benefit of any who from a greater interest in Egyp- 
tian Antiquity desire such additional information. 

Almost every one who in former as well as at later periods 
has visited this land of wonders, has felt it necessary to pub- 
lish his observations and experience in travels. Why should 
not the same privilege be allowed to him whose dreams of a 
brief period have carried him back thousands of years, while 
they exhibit to him in his earnest research of the old monu- 
ments a picture of the Ancient Capital of the land of the 
Pharaohs long since buried beneath its ruins. Large books 
have indeed been written during the last few years respecting 
one and another branch of Egyptian public and private life ; 
but they are intelligible and accessible to but few, on account of 
their learned character as well as their great extent and cost ; 



„ 



PREFACE. IX 

and hence the Author hopes, by means of the following work, 
which he commends to the indulgence of the reader, to have 
furnished at least a small contribution for the illustration of 
the culture-history of that people who continually more and 
more stand forth as the cradle of civil life of the Heathen 
religion and the important sciences, arts and inventions ; 
and without the correct appreciation of whom Antiquity in 
general cannot be fully comprehended and valued in all its 
relations. 

Gottingen, August, 1856. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. Page 

A STORY TO BEGIN WITH 13 

CHAPTER II. 

THE FIRST MORNING IN MEMPHIS 19 

CHAPTER III. 

THE VINEYARD — THE PROPHECIES — AN EGYPTIAN RATIONALIST . 49 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE SECOND MORNING — THE BURIAL — FISHING IN LAKE MOERIS — 

THE LABYRINTH — A HUNT 73 

CHAPTER V. 

THE VILLA THE BRICKYARD THE STABLES RETURN TO MEM- 
PHIS THE SHOEMAKER THE TEMPLE OF PTAH APIS THE 

SERPENT-CHARMER THE LIBRARY ...... 96 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE TALE 129 



Xll CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. Page 



THE EVENING WITH THE ROYAL BODY-GUARD SOME PARTICU- 
LARS RESPECTING EGYPTIAN TRADE A SOLDIER-QUARREL 

THE CAT .166 






CHAPTER VIII. 






A DREAM OSIRIS THE LAND OF THE BLESSED SESOSTRIS 

THE FEAST OF OSIRIS . . . . . . . .182 



CHAPTER IX. 
the pyramids the farewell. ...... 209 

Notes 219 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 



CHAPTER I. 



A STORY TO BEGIN WITH. 



It was some days since I had left my home and 
found myself ready to enter on the duties of my pro- 
fessorship in the University City of G . The 

autumn had already begun its work of destruction ; in 
the charming promenades which surround the pleasant 
city the tall old trees were already half robbed of their 
ornaments, and a furious tempest exerting its power 
ever since the day I arrived had entirely stripped them 
and driven the withering leaves across the wide plain to 
the mountains near by. 

Still, I felt constrained to go abroad into the open 
air. I wished to get acquainted with the place where I 
must fix my future abode, to let my eye rove, from the 
nearest hill, over the valley, and then take a look 
on the little city and on my new country. Whoever 
has seen himself (as was the case with me) suddenly 

2 13 



14 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

torn away from his dearest kindred, from the arms of 
love and friendship, sundered from his most beloved 
country, and, like a tender plant, transferred to a 
strange, unknown soil, — he can, perhaps, feel what I 
then felt on the top of the mountain. I had cast a 
hasty glance on the region around, even still charming 
in the late autumn season, but my spirit bore no part 
in it. It swept away far into the distance, glowed once 
more in the parting look of my father, gave the fare- 
well pressure of hand anew, threw a last glance into 
the little chamber where I had so long strove, wrestled, 
and fought for science. But pleasanter scenes besides 
passed before my mind. A bright, merry face of child- 
hood also smilingly beckoned me. But, ah ! the boy 
whose mind I had formed, to whose innocent plays I 
gave their meaning, who had accompanied me on my 
walks and had enlivened me and cheered me by questions 
of curiosity, was left behind. I stood alone on the top 
of the mountain, and solitude never appeared more sad 
and wanting of purpose than now, when destiny had 
brought it to me. How often like a fool I had wished 
for it, and now when it had become a necessity it was 
full of terror. 

But these pictures, too, passed away. Science would 
assert its claim. How often had I before investigated 
antiquity ; how often had I cast a curious look behind 
the walls of Egyptian temples ; how often in the palace 
of Sesostris; how often in one or another Egyptian 
workshop ! But was not this all mere piecemeal ? What 
use to me were the detached scenes which I had labo- 
riously disenchanted, if there was no powerful hand to 
bring them into a whole life-like picture ? 

"Yes, if only one had himself been there, lived at 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 15 

that time, and might now bring us knowledge of what 
we so laboriously search into !" This I thought to my- 
self with a sigh, and pensively descended to go into the 
valley. The sun sunk deeper and deeper, and the even- 
ing crimson gilded the slope of the mountain, across 
which the wind drove about the rustling leaves in wild 
whirls. Suddenly I stopped as if struck with lameness. 
It was not fear which chained me there, not a sudden 
terror which made me tremble throughout ; it was a 
sight that called forth the most pleasant feelings, but 
at the same time with the conviction that it was 
only a phantom, and filled me with sadness and melan- 
choly. 

A few steps before me, at the foot of an old, sturdy 
oak, sat a lovely boy, who smiled at me in the most 
kindly manner. The features were not unknown to 
me : they perfectly resembled those of the dear child 
who only a few minutes before had occupied my thoughts. 
I felt already like springing toward him and clasping 
the boy to my heart and inquiring after many dear 
ones in my home, but the thought, the certainty "it 
cannot be so," anew restrained me. And yet there was 
something else which made me hesitate, — the position 
of the boy. He continued motionless in a posture such 
as I had oftentimes seen and admired in the Egyptian 
pictures. He sat still, squatting on the ground, with one 
knee drawn up to a right angle, his left arm hanging 
down, his right, on the contrary, bent together, and his 
hand, as if enjoining silence, laid on his mouth. Was 
it a statue which by chance had here been thrown in my 
way? No, that could not be: it was the image of a 
fresh, vigorous life ; the eyes shone out so fiery beneath 
the long, dark lashes. Life was in every feature. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

"But whatever it is," I thought to myself, " I will find 
it out." So I resolved to go nearer to it. 

"Who are you, my little fellow?" I asked in a 
friendly and encouraging tone. 

No answer. I repeated the question. 

"Who are you?" 

Finally the boy let fall his hand and opened his 
mouth. 

"Are you a learned man?" said he to me, with a 
roguish smile. "And do you ask me who I am ?" 

"Now, then," I replied, "Can it be that you are 
Horus ?"(!)* 

"Why not?" he continued, as he slowly raised him- 
self up. " Do you learned men of the closet believe 
that the times of the old kingdom are at an end, that 
my reign has passed away ? Or do you not know that 
my mother Isis has made me immortal by an enchanted 
cup ? Would you not desire the power, if it could be, 
now to bring to life again Egypt — the old Egypt?" 

"It is a mere jest — a fable!" I cried out, almost 
angry. "Your temples are in ruins, your cities are 
lying waste, your bodies are moldered away, and no 
powder on earth can breathe into them new life." 

"And if there be not any such," asked the boy, sud- 
denly becoming serious; "Is not my mother Isis the 
greatest and most powerful goddess of the world ? Has 
not mighty Rome itself built a temple to her ? Look ! 
Your brave struggle to become acquainted with our 
spirit, our olden life, gives me pain. Will it ever suc- 
ceed ? The dead letter, the lifeless hieroglyphic, mocks 
your weak intellect. Only in fresh life is there truth. 
Come, I will show it to you." 

* See notes at the end, which are thus marked by figures. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 17 

" It is a dream, " I said, thoughtfully, as he caught 
hold of my hand. 

" And if it should be a dream, would it be less beau- 
tiful ?" replied the boy. "You have seen the ruins of 
our temple, you must see how they once looked, alive, 
with priests, and a believing, adoring multitude; you 
have, perhaps, shuddered as you gazed on many a 
mummy, many a moldered hand; you must see them 
at work and busy ; you must talk, eat, drink, and play 
with them." 

"But whither do you carry me?" I asked, when I 
noticed that at these words he drew me along further 
and further with himself. 

"To Memphis!" 

"But the evening is just coming on; the sun has 
already sunk beneath the horizon!" 

"No, you are mistaken," rejoined Horus, — for so I 
must now call him; — "that red, which glimmers above 
the mountains, it is the morning dawn which betokens 
a new day, — the first day in the newly-restored land of 
the Pharaohs. Look round you." 

We stood, as I thought, on the wall which surrounds 
the University City and affords a charming promenade. 
I looked forward on the right, where I knew the rail- 
road station ought to lie. But who can describe my 
astonishment ! The first rays of the morning sun gilded 
not the points of the telegraph tower. No, but the 
summit of pyramids commanding all, and at my feet 
lay the mighty, imperial city, with her temples and 
shrines, her palaces and castles. 

Who can describe the feelings which this view awa- 
kened, the remembrances it called forth ! Here once 
Joseph spoke out his rebukes ; here the old Pharaohs 



18 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 



reigned ; here before me lay the famous temple of Vul- 
can or Phtha, where the decree of the priests was de- 
liberated upon and drawn up, which is to-day preserved 
in the Rosetta Inscription. Every step must suggest 
new ideas, give a new exposition. 

Whether a dream or reality, I dashed forward into 
the arms of the then present. Yes ; in the fear that it 
might be only a dream and fly away too quickly and 
unenjoyed, I called out to my little guide an impatient 
and impetuous " Gro ahead !" So we descended into the 
valley. 



.. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FIRST MORNING IN MEMPHIS. 

"The dam from which we are descending," said my 
little conductor, "is a work of the first king of the 
country, whom, indeed, I do not need to name to you. 
Here, where we are now walking, was the old bed of 
the Nile. Menes conducted this arm of the Nile west- 
ward, and built Memphis on the spot where before the 
Nile glided gently along. For the maintenance and 
improvement of this dam a still greater care must now 
be used; for if at any time the river should break 
through, the whole of Memphis would be overflowed 
and rendered uninhabitable. But you do not listen to 
me ; you are wandering off in your thoughts !" 

"I was thinking," I answered, "where I must have 
already heard something like it. Herodotus, if I am 
not mistaken, relates the same, and in similar language ; 
you, perhaps, dictated it for his pen." 

"Oh, no !" replied Horus, smiling. "What I know I 
taught the priests, and, as you are aware, the man you 
speak of was a scholar of theirs. But let that pass. 
Do not believe all the Greeks have told you about us. 
I much doubt whether the priests always told them the 
truth. The priests very strictly kept their own secrets, 
and readily lied when they were closely questioned by 
curious strangers. They told the same Herodotus that 
no vines grew in our country ; and yet, believe me, wo 

19 



20 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

cultured the vine, gathered grapes, pressed out the juice 
and drank it, and it has been at all times much to our 
taste. Now is the time of the wine-harvest, and I will 
conduct you to-day into a vineyard." 

Amid this and similar discourse we came near the 
gates of the city, after Horus had promised, as he saw 
my general acquaintance with it, that he would then 
only explain to me particular things as I myself made 
my inquiries. 

Already before the gate a scene presented itself which 
I must not pass over. Close beside the road sat, with 
their feet bent under them, according to Egyptian cus- 
tom, eight blind persons, — a harper and seven singers, 
no doubt waiting for compassionate passers-by.* When 
they heard our coming footsteps they placed themselves 
in position, folded and raised supplicatingly their hands, 
and while the harper, with his seven-stringed instrument 
before him, accompanied their music with both hands, 
they sang the following song : — 

" Hail to Thee, Light of the Sun ! 
We indeed cannot behold thee 
Either rise or set; 
Isis has from us taken our sight. 
But we feel thy warm beams, 
Which from us, poor and blind, 
Thou dost not withdraw. 
Hail to Thee, Light of the Sun!" 

It was a matter of doubt whether with this song they 
greeted the rising sun or my little companion, the young 
sun-god ; but still fixed in my earlier, and indeed just 
left relations, I was about to put my hand into my 
pocket and hunt up a little gift for the poor unfortunates, 

* Wilkinson, II. 239, No. 193. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 21 

when, for the first time, I noticed that Horus, without 
my having perceived it, had changed my clothes and 
enchanted me into an Egyptian dress. This I must 
describe in a few words. 

I wore the simple white linen tunic so customary in 
the East, with fringe around the lower border, this being 
the common dress of the old Egyptians, which must 
always be kept perfectly white and clean.* This cloak, 
with short sleeves, which might be best compared to our 
shirt, was sometimes longer, sometimes shorter ; but in 
most cases it reached only to the knee, and was held to- 
gether above the hips by a girdle. So it was, too, with 
mine. Very different from this simple dress, of course, 
were the elegant robes of the king, the royal princes, 
and of the priests, which I afterward saw. The length, 
too, of the dress seemed, as it occurred to me, to be a 
mark of distinction of the higher ranks and official 
position. The officers of the army were distinguished 
from the rest of the soldiery by a longer tunic. In my 
girdle I carried a dagger or short sword, or rather some- 
thing between these, without a sheath, two-edged, and 
with a sharp point. When I looked at it more closely 
I observed on the golden hilt, beautifully wrought, a 
hawk's head,f the symbol of Horus, my guide. As- 
tonished, my eyes glanced thence downward to my feet. 
In place of boots were soles with cords, or sandals, 
which were fastened on the bare feet with straps, like 
our skates, and like them were marked in front by a 
long, bended point. J Finally, around my head was 
wound the well-known Egyptian kerchief, the long ends 
hanging down on both sides to the shoulders. 

* Herod. II. 37. f Wilkinson, I. 319, No. 30. 

% Wilkinson, III. 3G5, No. 7. 



22 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

" So," said Horus, as he laughed at my astonishment, 
"you will be taken for a soldier, and we shall find en- 
trance everywhere. At the court you will be looked 
upon as one of the body-guard, and even the king him- 
self dare not force you to remove. Perhaps he may 
hold you for a spy of the priests, and if so, will be the 
more gracious." 

"For a spy of the priests?" I asked, wondering, for 
I could not comprehend at once the meaning of his 
words. 

"Yes !" he replied. "Your kings, who rule with de- 
spotic will, are fortunate in governing their people ac- 
cording to their own conscience, promote or destroy the 
weal of their subjects, and for both must wait and reap 
the love or hatred of their people and the reward or 
punishment from Osiris. It is not so with us. Here 
the priests and their commands bear sway. The king 
is only a name, his power a mere empty word. The 
life of the king is regulated by the priests : prayers, 
sacrifices, eating, drinking, sleeping, all take place with 
him according to fixed laws and at appointed hours. 
He must not allow himself to be served by bought or 
born slaves ; sons of the most distinguished priests and 
chosen soldiers surround him constantly, as he perhaps 
flatters himself, to do him special honor, but in fact to 
watch over him as the lowest spies, whose duty it is to 
report every action, word, and thought of the king to 
the all-powerful priests." 

"0 poor kings!" said I, sighing. "I always re- 
garded their enslavement, as Diodorus portrays it, only 
for a fable."* 

"Lament not for them!" said Horus, breaking in 

* Diocl. I. 70. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 23 

upon my words. " They do not feel their dependence. 
You will see them in their majesty, glory, and splendor, 
and envy them. You will see how much incense is 
scattered upon them. The love of their subjects, the 
reverence, the adoration paid to them as to the gods, 
since the time of Menes, is the most glorious ornament, 
the costliest pearl in the crown of our kings." 

We entered the gate. A cold air was all around us 
inside of this enormous mass of stone. It was formed 
wholly of square stones, a lofty quadrangle, but with- 
out any decoration or ornament. Only above and on 
both sides of the entrance three royal shields, just alike, 
chiseled in stone, with hieroglyphic characters, made 
known the founder's name. I could easily decipher the 
particular signs : they were the well-known pictures 
from the tablet of Abydos, by which the name of Menes 
was always expressed. 

In the gate something new at once arrested my atten- 
tion, — it was a sentinel. I had again forgotten that I 
was in Memphis, and that between to-day and yesterday 
lay three thousand years, and was afraid of a challenge 
for the watchword and things of this sort. But the 
soldier allowed us to pass unhindered ; he appeared to 
think of no hostile assault. His large shield, rounded 
at the top, angular at the bottom, which he held before 
him, and had planted one corner firmly on the ground, 
almost wholly covered him, and kept his figure, up to 
his head and the projecting point of his lance, from 
our sight. The copper-pointed lance, which he had 
also fixed on the ground, reached far above him, and 
might have been six to seven feet long; and his brazen 
helmet, which appeared to be not a little burdensome to 
his head, marked him out as one of the heavy infantry, 



24 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

and also one of the king's guard. Had not Horus 
prudently changed my dress he would have hardly 
allowed us to enter, at least he would certainly have 
warned me to report myself to the police. This expres- 
sion may sound modern, and needs an explanation. In 
no State of antiquity was the administration of the 
police so organized and strict as in Egypt. Every in- 
habitant of the land was bound yearly to report him- 
self to the superintendent of his nomos or district, and 
conscientiously give in his name, rank, profession or 
occupation, income, and other particulars. The making 
of a false statement or wholly to neglect such a report 
was regarded as a crime to be visited with the severest 
punishment ; and, although the accounts of the ancients 
are silent as to the laws of the police respecting stran- 
gers, it may certainly be supposed that travelers and 
foreigners were subjected to similar regulations. But 
my dress was well-chosen, and saved me; and I was 
now, if I may so speak, a concealed person, in a new 
sense of the word, within the walls of Memphis. 

Much as the Egyptians have been represented by the 
old authors as a serious and morose people, yet here 
early in the morning there met us the purest joy, 
cheerfulness, and contentment. From certain build- 
ings, behind which towered the colossal temple of Ptah, 
with its famous propyls, resounded the cheerful song of 
merry artisans ; porters passed by with heavy burdens 
on their heads ; the traders opened their shops ; bakers 
and butchers bore in elegant baskets on their heads 
their articles of sale to their customers ; and, in short, 
it was a stirring picture of the industry of a great city 
at the first hour of the morning. Two boys, apparently 
belonging to a higher rank, sat before the door of a 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 25 

house, on the ground, in the well-known Egyptian style, 
kneeling on the right foot so that the knee touched the 
ground, and sitting on the heel of that foot, the left 
foot being drawn up high to balance the knee.* They 
were earnestly playing at morra, which the Greeks 
afterward learned from the Egyptians, and from them 
the Romans, and which to-day is customary in Italy, 
though it is forbidden, for there it scarcely ever ends 
without a dangerous stab of the knife. It is, indeed, a 
play which only two friends who have perfect confi- 
dence in each other can try. It consists in one per- 
son's suddenly and with the greatest quickness stretch- 
ing out and pressing together the fingers, and the other 
at the same instant must guess the number of fingers 
extended. I say " guess," for it is done so quickly that 
there is no time for seeing and counting. Thus the two 
Egyptian boys mentioned above were playing, and I 
stood for some time enjoying it as I looked on and 
heard their rapid, sometimes false and sometimes cor- 
rect, answers. Quick as lightening the hand of one was 
stretched out ; " three," cried the other; " wrong, it is 
four," replied the first. So it goes on, often for an 
hour, until one of them does not trust to the other's 
word, accuses him of deception, and after a short inter- 
change of words they take to blows. And here a like 
result was threatened, when suddenly the door of the 
house opened and a harsh voice told the boys that it 
was time for them to take their papyri and writing- 
instruments and go to school to the priests. With 
cross faces they hurried away. I would gladly have 
followed them to share in their hour for writing, and 

* Wilkinson, II. 417, No. 1. 
3 



26 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

make some advances in reading hieroglyphics, but I 
could not, and must not leave Horus. 



The long morning walk from the dam of the Nile 
even to the gate of Memphis had in the mean time 
made me hungry, and Horus, who either felt so too or 
saw into my feelings and understood my wishes, with a 
kind anticipation proposed to me to step into a baker's 
shop near by; a proposal to which I agreed with the 
greater pleasure, as I could here join the useful and 
the agreeable and satisfy both my thirst of knowledge 
and my appetite. Bread was one of the chief articles 
of food among the old Egyptians, on which account 
they were called by the Greeks, by way of derision, 
Artophagi, or bread-eaters. But they baked it less 
from barley or wheat than from the meal of a sort of 
grain which the Greeks called Olyra^ or Zea, and which 
at the present day is much used in Egypt and corre- 
sponds to our Spelt, (triticum Spelta of Linnaeus.)* 

We knocked at a door over which stood written, in 
hieroglyphic letters, Ahmes er-aik, Le. "Ahmes the 
Bread-maker*" "Amu (come in) sounded from with- 
in. We entered a high room, in which the master-baker 
was at his work with at least some twenty men. The 
first sight which offered itself to me w^as adapted to take 
away from a bom and bred European all desire of eat- 
ing. If Herodotus indeed accuses the Egyptians of 
kneading their dough with their feet and the clay on 
the contrary with their hands, I found the first part of 
his statement fully confirmed, f On the right of the 
entrance stood a large bowl-shaped vessel or trough 
* Herod. II. 36 and 77. f Herod. II. 36. Wilk. II. 385, figs. 1, 2. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 27 

filled with dough, in which two lusty fellows of some 
fifteen years old were dancing about with their bare 
feet according to a measure which they accompanied 
with a low humming. Further in the back-ground stood 
a simple wooden table, on which the dough, kneaded as 
described above, received its various forms and shapes. 
An elderly man here not only fashioned bread-loaves of 
different size, which, as is sometimes the case with us, 
were adorned by indentations and lines, but also other 
figures of fourfooted animals, fishes, &c. came forth 
from his artistic hand. The loaves and cakes beauti- 
fully arranged on tables and boards, and which had just 
then been drawn out of the oven, presented an agree- 
able sight, well adapted to excite the appetite. The 
single bread-loaves were flat, round, or oval-shaped, and 
were decorated with a handsome edge, a raised place in 
the centre, and other little elevations or hollows. But 
there were also articles baked from wheat, in elegant 
forms, arranged on wooden benches that stood against 
the left wall. There were oxen, cows, and sheep lying 
down ; great and small fishes, five-pointed stars, tri- 
angles, disks, and things such as with us are to be found 
at the confectioner's or pastry-cook's shop.* In the mid- 
dle of the room, lastly, stood large flat baskets and men 
by them, to whom the master, or " chief bread-maker," 
counted out the single articles and gave directions to 
whose house they must be carried. These fellows raised 
the baskets on their heads often up to three or four, one 
above another, and hurried away. On seeing this I was 
vividly reminded of the dream of Pharaoh's chief-baker, 
who thought that he bore three baskets, piled on each 
other with their various fine-baked articles, on his head.f 
* Rosellini, II. 2, p. 4G4. f Genesis xl. 1G. 



28 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

His dream was produced, as to its whole outlines, from 
the former business of his life. 

We made known our wants, and immediately each of 
us received a simple round loaf of bread about the size 
of a hand, baked from Olyra — the usual food of the 
poorer Egyptians. When Herodotus calls this kind of 
loaf Kyllestis, this is a mistake, or a Greek word in dis- 
guise ; among the names of the various sorts of bread 
which I heard from the mouth of the baker I do not re- 
collect to have heard that one. This bread had a strong, 
somewhat too acid taste, and on this account, when I 
had eaten it, I took a small fine wheat loaf, in the form 
of a fish, and ate it with great relish. 

After a friendly good-by we were about to go further 
on our way when the hospitable baker, who, without 
our noticing it, had gone out a few minutes before, re- 
turned with a pitcher and invited us to a drink of beer, 
or barley-wine as he called it, which he had shortly 
since received as a present from a friend.* We thanked 
him for his kind offer. Elegant porcelain cups, vase- 
shaped, f were brought in at the beckoning of the mas- 
ter, and the glorious foaming drink, the refreshment of 
the Germans, was drunk to the host's health. With 
grateful wishes that the gods might bless him, I took 
my departure, leading Horus, as if a son, by the hand. 

"Now it is time," said he, as soon as we were in the 
open air, "to go to the court and mix with the cour- 
tiers ; two hours ago the horoscope must have been to 
the king and announced to him the break of day." 

"And does the king really rise from his bed every 
day at so early an hour?" I asked, surprised. 

"Certainly," replied the little fellow. "As I have 
* Herod. II. 77. t Wilk. II. 355, No. 5. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. • 29 

already told you, his mode of life is strictly regu- 
lated by the priests ; every hour has its destined busi- 
ness ; and there never is an exception to the rule but 
when the king must be conceived as on a warlike expe- 
dition and out of the city. A festival only disturbs the 
daily customs. On a festival generally the whole active 
power of the state-machine comes to a stand till the new 
arrangement again begins, the pilgrimages and proces- 
sions have reached their end, and every one returns to 
his occupation. But on days like this, with the first 
ray of the morning sun also the horoscope appears by 
the bedside of the king ; the king rises ; the private 
secretary enters and lays before him letters that have 
come in from all quarters, petitions, reports, and com- 
plaints ; and while he is bound to read them closely and 
examine them conscientiously, and so fill up the first hour 
of the day with these affairs, he maintains a daily survey 
of the state of his kingdom. After this he takes a bath, 
in which he is served by the noblest sons of the priests, 
who are constantly about him. This over, he puts on a 
splendid cloak, decorates himself with the royal insignia, 
and goes openly to sacrifice to the gods in the presence 
of the priests, the body-guard, and his whole court- 
state. This takes place commonly in the royal palace, 
at the altar of the house-god, and if we make haste we 
can yet be present at this solemnity." 

We walked quickly forward, and after a few minutes 
the royal palace, which in its broad extent almost formed 
a city, lay before our eyes. Six steps led us directly 
to a pillared passage the floor of which was laid with 
the purest alabaster. The thickness of the pillars was 
large in proportion to their height ; they had a circum- 
ference of from ten to fifteen feet or more, but they 

8* 



30 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

stood so near together that the spaces between them 
were hardly four feet. They appeared as if every one 
was wrought out of a single piece, and perfectly po- 
lished ; instead of our square pedestals they had round 
ones, and capitals in the form of the lotus-flower. The 
roof was not arched, but consisted of long, massive 
blocks of stone, which were laid across from one pillar 
to another. On these again rested others, which crossed 
the first at right-angles. We walked through this pas- 
sage, then we went between two rows of sphinxes, whose 
unexpressive faces stared at us motionless, and reached 
a tower-like gate-way, which formed the before-men- 
tioned gate of the city, and w T as richly adorned with hiero- 
glyphical inscriptions. A band of about ten soldiers 
kept watch at the entrance, every one of them armed 
with a bow and a battle-ax, the former of which they 
bore in the left, and the latter in the right hand; and a 
trumpeter, too, was with them, to sound the alarm in 
any case of necessity. Through the portal we reached 
a large square vestibule, which was shut in round about 
by covered colonnades. Here stood on the right a 
gigantic statue of the god, the image of Ptah, the Vul- 
can of the Romans, who appeared to be the protecting 
deity of the reigning king and on this account was very 
properly here found in his place.* It was a pillar of 
Ptah such as is commonly found : a standing figure in 
which only the head was formed out, while from the 
shoulders downward it terminated in a thick column. 
On the front side of the pillar was a hieroglyphic in- 
scription that contained a prayer to the god, — in the 
last words of which he was called " Creator, God, Lord 

* Compare the inscription of the Rosetta Stone, rjyaTzrjfikvoQ vtto 
rov 00a, beloved of Phthah. 



THKEE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 31 

in Eternity." We were thinking of proceeding on our 
way to the left when here suddenly the daily sacrificial 
procession came forth from a portal. 

A company of the royal body-guard opened the pro- 
cession, having in front a band of music ; they marched 
once all around the vestibule, and then placed them- 
selves on both sides of the portal by which the king was 
to enter. After them followed the lower classes of the 
Egyptian priests, who carried the apparatus necessary 
for the solemn rites. I noticed among these, particu- 
larly, costly golden vessels filled with wine, and a re- 
markable instrument that was designed for the exhibi- 
tion of the incense. It consisted of an outstretched 
human arm, almost of the size of life, wrought of the 
• purest gold, the hand of which held the censer filled 
with glowing coals.* Others again bore precious golden 
and silver boxes, which were filled with incense of various 
kinds. Next followed the king, with him the prophet 
or chief-priest of the college ; both of them large, ma- 
jestic figures, who strode in proudly in the consciousness 
of their dignity and high rank. After them followed the 
sacred scribe, recognized by the pen he bore as an orna- 
ment for his head, and with a book-roll in his hand; and 
then came the whole crowd of courtiers, young sons of 
the priests, and soldiers, who pressed in hurriedly and 
placed themselves on both sides of the image of the god, 
while the king, prophet, and the sacred scribe stood up 
before the god, and the servants of the temple took their 
position behind the king. 

At a sign by the prophet, who here also acted as 
mediator between the god and the king, the assembled 
multitude began a solemn hymn in praise of the divinity. 

* Wilk. TT. Ser. Suppl. plate 82. 



32 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

It sounded monotonous, but still was not wanting in 
making a solemn impression even on myself. I had 
mixed myself among the courtiers ; I looked one and 
another in the face, and everywhere met with so much 
seriousness, such hearty devotion, that I recognized how 
fixed and immovably rooted in them was faith in their 
god. There was no one here, as, alas ! there are many 
among us, who had come only to let himself be seen and 
to seem not godless. Every one- here felt the nearness 
to him of his god, while singing with upraised hands, 
and praying most earnestly, he gazed on the motionless 
face of the image. They sung thus i* — 

" Praise to thy face, Creator, God! 
Praise to thy visage, great Ptah ! 
Who hast formed the great world, 
The heaven, earth, and starry host ; 
Praise to thy face, Father of the world ! 

" Praise to thy face, Creator, God! 
Praise to thy visage, great Ptah ! 
Thou who dost adorn the world around 
To-day, as ever, with thy gifts ; 
Praise to thy face, Preserver of the world ! 

" Praise to thy face, Creator, God! 
Praise to thy visage, great Ptah ! 
Thou who dost rule and judge the world, 
Destroy the wicked, reward the good ; 
Praise to thy face, Sovereign of the world I" 

When the hymn was ended the whole assembly sunk 
down on their knees — only the king and the prophet re- 
mained standing ; and while the king received from the 
hands of the servant of the temple a vessel" of wine, and 
* From the Todtenbuch, (Book of the Dead,) chap, cxxxix. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 33 

poured out the libation, and afterward took the golden 
hand with the censer of incense in his right hand and 
held it toward the image of the god, and strewed sweet- 
smelling incense into the basin of coals, the prophet 
uttered this prayer : — 

44 Great Ptah, Lord of the heaven, Father of the 
gods ! The king comes before thy face in the morning 
hour to thank thee! Thou hast granted him power, 
wisdom, long life, victory over his enemies, and domi- 
nion over Egypt. Graciously hearken to him ! Count- 
less are his virtues. He reveres thee and the other gods 
daily and hourly; he has ever been obedient and loving 
to his parents, to whom he owes his life ; he hath 
wronged no one in anger, killed no defenceless person in 
unrighteous fight ; he hath robbed no one of his pro- 
perty unjustly; he knows not of lies nor deceit; his 
words and his actions are pure and without falsehood. 
So judge the priests, who have watched over his life ; so 
judge his friends, who are round about him ; so judge 
the people, whom he rules wisely and justly. But Thou 
seest into the depths of the heart ; Thou beholdest the 
evil that escapes our eyes ; Thou hearest the complaint 
of the oppressed and wretched which may not reach our 
ears. Is there one in Egypt who accuses the king in his 
prayer to thee ? Has wrong been done to one in Egypt 
and we know it not? So speak Thou the king, the 
unpunishable, free from all guilt, and roll it on his ser- 
vants and counselors who have deceived him. Great 
God ! The day has begun ; guard the realm ; give also 
to the king wise thoughts this day, and be Thou gra- 
cious to all. Hail to thy face !" 

When the prophet had uttered this prayer, and had 
risen, the sacred scribe drew near with the holy book,( 2 ) 



34 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

in order, according to the ancient custom, to read some 
passages from it.* He opened the roll and read the 
following: — "Thus speaks Osiris: 'I am the Creator of 
the other gods, shining high above in the place of the 
divine abode, which encircles the lands. Sing praises, 
ye men, to the splendor of my work and the beams of 
the other leaders, (of the house of the stars,) the chil- 
dren of the gods, who there walk in the space of the 
girdle of Osiris, in the windings of their paths, mount- 
ing and descending according to various rules. I am 
the compeller of men, the Sun-god who walks about on 
the firmament of the heaven ; the shining king ; the liv- 
ing Osiris ; w T ho there judges the pious and the wicked 
one day as every day; who there wakes the son of the 
Sun, the Indian bird, (the Phoenix,) the son of Osiris. 
The God of the universe of life, Osiris, rejoices as we 
rejoice ourselves, in life. I am the bright, the shining 
one in the house of the gods at On, the city of the 
Sun/ " 

When the Hierogrammatist or sacred scribe had read 
these words from the sacred roll, the prophet took up 
the words to explain and illustrate them in a short ad- 
dress. He spoke of the mighty Sun-god, the Creator 
of the universe, of the bright, shining zodiac, the girdle 
of Osiris, which, as a dwelling of the watchful gods, 
encircles the earth. In lively colors he portrayed the 
fidelity and watchfulness of the Sun-god, Osiris, who 
appears in the East in the morning, walks about the 
heaven, at midday, rich in blessing, stands at his highest 
point, and then descending, sinks deeper and deeper, 
till he disappears in the West in the evening, with a 
last glowing look of departure. "Rich in blessing is 
* The Book of the Dead, chap. iii. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 35 

his working;" thus he proceeded, enthusiastically; "from 
morn to evening he watches over his native land, where 
he once lived, wrought, reigned as king, bravely fought, 
and suffered death from the hand of the wicked blas- 
phemer. As then his appearance brought on earth for- 
tune and safety, so it is to-day and every day, when he 
mounts up into the heaven. The flower raises its head 
and uncloses its cup ; the bird begins his joyous morn- 
ing lay; man goes forth from his abode, and all are 
quickened and warmed by the beams of his eye as soon 
as he, the thousand-eyed, ( 3 ) quits the dwelling of Athor 
and spreads abroad his blessing. Bless and praise him, 
then ; him the faithful watcher in the firmament of 
heaven ! And when he has gone down, and has dis- 
appeared behind the western mountains, are we then 
forsaken ? Oh no ! His spouse, Isis, his innumerable 
children and her attendants, then mount up to protect 
the realm. To him and to his children, the other gods, 
we can trust ; in their protection we feel ourselves secure. 
His power, his majesty, his grace, his compassion, are 
infinite. Do you ask, What is infinite ? Man cannot 
comprehend it, cannot grasp it ; he must not try to un- 
derstand it, for the glory of the Sun-god is unfathom- 
able. Let us search not further ! When we in Amen- 
thes are united to him we shall look into, his greatness 
and glory ; now it is a labyrinth to us that only the 
consecrated prophet penetrates, where every layman 
loses himself and wanders. Hear a parable ! An over- 
curious boy once wanted to look at Osiris close by. He 
stood on the eastern shore of Lake Moeris, and Osiris 
disappeared at evening in the lake. The boy, during 
the night, ran along the lake to see Osiris nearer ; in 
the morning he was on the west shore, and Osiris arose 



36 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 






again from the lake, in the East, and walked his eternal 
path; the boy ran further on, and in the evening he stood 
at the foot of the mountain that separates our country 
from Lybia ; Osiris disappeared behind. ' There dwells 
Osiris,' cried out the boy; and with unspeakable toil he 
ascended the mountain, that he might look into the 
dwelling of the god. But the darkness increased ; the 
evening broke in, and when the boy had reached the 
top Osiris was no more this side of the mountain. 
Weeping, the boy spent the night on the top of the 
mountain, and looked down east on the lake, and on the 
west to a boundless and horrible desert. But what a 
wonder ! The new day begins, and Osiris comes forth, 
mounting higher in the East, from the lake. The boy 
stayed on the top of the mountain, from which he hoped 
to see where Osiris walked that day. At noon the Sun- 
god stood high over the mountain's top and moved to- 
ward the West. The boy went down from the moun- 
tain, hastened toward Osiris in the desert. ' To the 
West, to the West !' The sand of the desert surrounded 
him ; before him Osiris disappeared in the desert. So 
the boy ran on and on. Finally his strength failed : he 
had lost himself in the desert, and perished miserably 
there. That is the labyrinth of the divinity. Stay back, 
spirit of man, search not further. Thou weak man, only 
the priest knows the mysteries which thou canst not 
comprehend. Go away, and praise Osiris, for his glory 
is without end !" 

When the prophet had thus spoken, all arranged 
themselves for the march, in the same order as before, 
and the procession disappeared through the same en- 
trance, and returned to the interior chambers. 

"The king goes to the business of state," said my 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 37 

little conductor, with a roguish smile; "let us now 
make a visit to the king's harem." 

I agreed ; but before I relate and sketch what I fur- 
ther saw and experienced, I must premise a few words 
respecting the condition and social position of women in 
Old Egypt. 

The social position of the female sex in Old Egypt 
has been estimated very differently by different authors, 
even up to the latest times. This diversity of views has 
been produced and favored particularly by the accounts 
varying from one another, and sometimes also self-con- 
tradictory, of the old classic historians, who have left us 
the most extended information about the manners. and 
customs of the ancient Egyptians. Before, therefore, 
— as is the case in modern days, — the Egyptian monu- 
ments and wall-paintings in the temples and sepulchres 
had been drawn forth from their ruins and examined, 
and could be brought forward to decide the question, 
the learned expressed different views and suppositions 
on this point of Egyptian antiquity, according as they 
believed they ought to yield the greater credit to this or 
that author, one or another statement. Thus, in earlier 
modern times, it was believed* that in Egypt females 
were not eligible to the throne ; but, on the contrary, 
history, the best instructress, furnishes many names of 
arbitrary queens. Who has not heard of Nitocris, of 
Skemiophris, and others ? who does not know that Isis, 
later adored as a goddess, in the earliest times must 
have been queen and sovereign of the country? A 
people who excluded the female sex wholly from the 
throne would not certainly have represented one of its 

* De Pauw: " Rcchcrches Philosophiques sur les Egyptiens," &c. 
T. i. p. 30. 

4 



38 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

most excellent, universally-reverenced goddesses as the 
oldest queen of the country. Further: Herodotus re- 
lates that the female sex in Egypt were wholly excluded 
from the priest's office, and no woman had served in any 
temple as a priestess ; yet the same historian contra- 
dicts himself in another place, * and in the story of 
the Oracle of Dodona makes express mention of the 
Priestesses of Thebes. Again: Plutarch speaks of 
an Egyptian law, according to which women were not 
permitted to wear shoes. Hence it has been concluded 
that the Egyptians, in this way, wished to force their 
women always to remain at home, as it was regarded 
indecorous for them to go into the streets bare-foot. 
Herodotus, on the contrary, reportsf that among the 
Egyptians the wives went to market and traded, while 
the men remained at home and attended to the house- 
hold affairs ; and so it has been maintained that this is 
only to be understood of the lowest classes of the popu- 
lace, and some have even gone so far as to conclude, 
from these reasons, that Herodotus could not have been 
in the best society in Egypt. By such and similar argu- 
mentation, and resting on the report of Diodorus,J that 
the Egyptians, with the exception of the priests, were 
allowed to marry as many wives as they chose, — though 
Herodotus says the contrary, while he maintains that 
every Egyptian had only one wife, — they went so far, 
pardonable enough, indeed, as to compare the Egyptian 
life in this respect to that of the other Oriental nations, 
and with tolerable certainty to suppose, also, that the 
Egyptians were most oppressive despots ; held their wo- 
men as slaves, shut up in their harems, guarded strictly 

* Herod. II. 54. f Herod. II. 35. 

J Diod. Sicul. I. 80. Compared with the contrary in Herod. II. 92. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 39 

by eunuchs, and generally in every respect let them 
play only a subordinate part ; and that how little they 
regarded their wives, and made hardly any difference 
among them, is evident from this, that there was a law 
in Egypt, according to which every child, even one 
born of a bought slave-woman, was looked upon as 
equal in birth.* This view once held and established, 
led to the necessary conclusion that we must pronounce 
the biblical narrative we have respecting Joseph and 
Potiphar's wife unworthy of belief, as Joseph was not 
near the woman, and, least of all, could have reached 
the harem. f But our view is different when we con- 
sider the Egyptian monuments and inscriptions. If 
the Egyptian queens had, indeed, held as subordinate a 
position as in modern times in the East, we should know 
as little about them as we do of the Persian and Turk- 
ish sultanas. This, however, is not the case. His- 
tory has preserved many names for us, and the monu- 
ments and hieroglyphic inscriptions have made immortal 
many more. In the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, un- 
der which the Israelites went out of Egypt, and which 
reigned in Egypt about eighteen hundred years before 
Christ,J and, therefore, at a very early period, we find 
on the monuments the names given of royal wives, e.g. 
Nane- Atari, wife of King Amenophtep ; Taj a, wife of 
Amenoph the II., &c. ; and when we compare with this 
the account of Diodorus§ that there was paid to the 
queens of Egypt greater honor than to their husbands 
themselves, there, too, appears to have been among 
them only one wife, or, in case of several, the first and 
preferred wife always took a place of dignity. From 

* Diod. I. 80. f Von Bohlcn, die Genesis, &c. pp. 371, 372. 

% See my " Thoth," " Ilyksos," &c. p. 237. \ Diod. II. 27. 



40 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

various passages of the Greek authors, likewise, it may 
be concluded that it was an early custom in Egypt to 
bestow with the daughters whom they wished to marry, 
from their father's property, a marriage portion; and 
on this account, also, the Egyptian wives must have 
stood in far higher estimation and enjoyed a far more 
agreeable condition than in other parts of the East, 
where the custom had been introduced, and is yet ob- 
served, to buy the bride of her parents and kindred for 
a sum of money, for which reason the husband believes 
himself justified in treating her as a bought-slave or 
bondwoman. Women in Egypt, too, lived — and this is 
the main proof, according to pictorial representations 
on the monuments— by no means so restrained and im- 
prisoned as in the East.* Besides social states, where 
the wives and their husbands are found in the different 
chambers, and which remind us of similar European do- 
mestic arrangements, we find them also often in the 
same chamber mingling together with all the social free- 
dom of modern enjoyments. The children, too, were 
not imprisoned in the harem, as is usual now in the 
East ; they were much more frequently introduced into 
society, and allowed to sit with the mother or on the 
father's knee. When my little conductor, therefore, 
spoke of the harem of the king, he meant by it the 
chambers of the queen and all the luxury and elegance 
by which they were furnished ; the female slaves, sing- 
ers, dancers, and the court-state, which I shall have 
occasion to describe. But perhaps an allusion may be 
expected as to the beauty, the charming figure, and 
loveliness of the Egyptian women. Here I must be 
silent. All writers know of more to relate respecting 
* Wilt. II. 889. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 41 

their homeliness than of their charms, and the monu- 
ments in all respects confirm this judgment. Thick, up- 
turned lips, large ears standing high on the head ; but 
no ! let whoever would learn to know them accurately, let 
him travel to Egypt and observe their descendants, the 
female Copts : they who at this day hold that there is 
a charm in fatness, must be apt copiers of their fore- 
fathers. 

Horus conducted me back again the same way by 
which we had entered the inside of the palace. We 
passed beyond the statue of Ptah again into the collo- 
nade, which at this time we did not cross lengthwise, but 
turned off to the right. Some steps forward led us into 
another lofty antechamber, and after we had gone about 
ten paces we stood before a parti-colored, embroidered, 
woolen curtain, which shut out the view into the sanc- 
tuary of the women's chamber. Guards were nowhere 
to be seen, and my idea of meeting here the watchmen 
of the harem and eunuchs was not in the least degree 
confirmed. Only one old slave — a black, bought at the 
South, who appeared to have grown gray in the service 
of the royal family as a door-keeper — cowered in one 
corner of the chamber; but the heat of the day had 
overcome him, and he was asleep. So we could, without 
danger, enter ? Oh no ! I dare not do that ! But lift 
the curtain a little, and cast a curious glance into the 
interior. The splendor of the women's chamber dazzled 
my eyes. The floor, composed, no doubt, as that of the 
whole palace, with plates of alabaster, was covered with 
carpets wrought or embroidered in the most beautiful 
manner; the walls and the ceiling were painted blue, 
and decorated with countless golden stars. Around the 
walls and in the middle of the chamber stood the most 

4* 



42 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

costly and elegant furniture. How can I describe all 
this splendor, this luxury ! Besides the most beautiful 
couches, overlaid with covered cloth, and that rested on 
low footstools erected against the walls,* the royal 
throne-chair and divan, with high-back supports, stood 
in the middle of the chamber. This was formed of 
cedar-wood, furnished with four golden lion-feet, and 
adorned with every kind of golden decorations. The 
name of the queen was also immortalized on every one 
of the feet of the chair in a golden hieroglyphical shield. 
I read it, Ahmes-t, i.e. daughter of the moon. The 
cover of the chair was like the walls, — blue, with stars. 
Divans, also, for two persons, like the one-seated kind, 
were not wanting, f In one corner, on the floor, lay field- 
chairs, folded together. Tables, also, of the most elegant 
kind, stood against the walls, before the couches. I ad- 
mired the tastefulness of their workmanship. The tops 
of the tables were round, of fine wood ; they rested, as 
in many tables of our time, on one foot ; but this foot 
consisted not, as with us, of a simple thick pillar, but of 
artistically- wrought, rich, golden, standing human figures, 
— Africans, slaves, soldiers, and others, — who bore the 
top on their heads. To give firmness to the table, these 
figures also stood at the bottom again, on separate 
wooden footstools. % Upon the table I saw the most 
splendid vessels for display, of gold, silver, ivory, and 
variously-colored glass vases, bowls, cups, cans, and 
pitchers. Especially a large golden vase excited my 
wonder, the two handles of which were formed by two 
silver cats that stood with their hind-feet upon the swell 
of the vase and reached up with the fore-feet to lay 
hold of the brim. In like manner with all the other 
* Wilk. II. 190, 199, kc. f Wilk. TT. 191. J Wilk, II, 202. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 43 

vessels, whole figures of animals, or heads of goats, 
cows, horses, and birds, were used as handles or deco- 
rations of the covers.* Cups of porcelain, in the shape 
of lotus-blossoms, with golden leaves, stood around a 
costly mixing-pitcher, arranged in a circle. 

In a few minutes this place of splendor and royal 
luxury began to be full of life. Back of the curtain, 
the same behind which we lay hid, the queen come forth 
not yet indeed dressed in her ornaments, but only 
covered by a long garment, full of folds flowing down 
to the feet ; yet still in her stately, beautiful figure, and 
in her proud, dignified, majestic gait, easily to be recog- 
nized as the royal spouse. A throng of companions, 
maid-servants, and slaves, crowded in after her. Two 
children, also, of about one and two years old, no doubt 
royal princes, were brought in by their nurses. The 
manner in which the children were treated especially 
fixed my attention. They were neither tied up in 
bandages or in close garments, but stretched out naked 
on the carpet of the floor, where nothing hindered them 
from breathing freely and extending and moving their 
limbs as they chose. Playthings, likewise, of all sorts, 
were laid near them ; thus, I saw, for example, dolls, 
whose limbs, as with us, might be set in motion by a 
thread hanging down.f In this w T ay, in Old Egypt, all 
children were appropriately tended and brought up; 
they were wont to bathe them every day, and, besides, 
they let them have perfect freedom to stretch themselves 
out as described. Thus they by degrees, of themselves, 
exercised their powers of going and running, and as 
even a fall on the soft carpet did them no harm, they 
grew rapidly under the eyes of their mothers and nurses, 
* Wilk. TL 346-849, f Wilk. TT. 427, 



44 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

The queen cast a look, beaming with joy and happi- 
ness, on her children, and seated herself on her throne- 
chair. At a signal given, the female slaves above men- 
tioned, who followed her, hastened to the corner, brought 
out the field-chairs, drew them apart, and arranged them 
in a semicircle opposite the queen. The queen's com- 
panions, easily distinguished as Egyptians by their dress 
and complexion, took their seats on them. They were 
all homely, as I have sketched them in general above. 
The toilet of the queen now began : one of the slaves, 
with a fragrant vessel which contained a pomade, came 
up to her, while another unbound her long, dark hair, 
and yet a third approached with a round hand-mirror ;* 
the queen clapped her hands, and immediately there 
came forth from the company of female-slaves a lively 
dancer and sprung into the middle of the chamber. 
She could have scarcely been sixteen years old; her 
bright complexion, beautiful, noble features, dark and 
languishing eyes, marked her out as a daughter of Asia. 
Her long black hair hung free and unbound down over 
her shoulders ; she wore only a fine, short, little frock, 
which was confined above her hips by a costly girdle, 
and adorned at the lower border by a pointed edge. 
Her arms and feet were bare ; around her neck she wore 
an elegant broad neck-kerchief, fastened together with 
blue and white pearls. In her hand she held a small 
musical instrument like a guitar, with a little keyboard 
but a long handle. f 

A symphony on the instrument, played by herself, 
was the introduction to her dance, and which she ac- 
companied with a wild melody. I could not enough 

* Wilk. III. 385, 386. f Wilk. II. 301. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 45 

drink in the sight, so charming and multiplied were her 
passionate movements. Sometimes rising on either of 
her feet ; sometimes violently beating the floor with her 
heels ; sometimes turning on this or that foot in a circle ; 
sometimes with incredible skill springing on high and 
hovering in the air ; she was in nothing behind the most 
celebrated female dancers of our day. When, finally, 
wearied out and exhausted, she ended her play and 
dancing, the queen threw her a kind and assenting look, 
but that was all the reward, all the applause which she 
earned. 

I now gained time once more to turn my eyes to the 
toilet of the queen, which in the mean time had gone 
forward. Her raven-black hair was now arranged in in- 
numerable braids and tresses : a third part of it fell 
down on the right side ; a third at the left, on her bosom ; 
and another third covered her neck and shoulders. This 
style of hair was confined by a costly, broad, golden 
band across the forehead, taken from the jewel-box.* 
Her hands, also, were now decorated with rings of every 
description ; on every finger, even on the two thumbs, 
she bore at least one, and on the fore and middle fingers 
two or three rings apiece. f These rings were of the 
most varied forms : some of them were seal-rings, shaped 
like ours ; others consisted of serpents, which, after one 
or more coils, held their tails in their mouths ; and 
others yet were broad, round finger-rings, with the most 
diverse ornaments and inscriptions. Whether the queen, 
as I supposed, also wore ear-rings, I could not easily 
see, as her ears were entirely covered up by the tresses 
of hair hanging down on the side of her head. Around 

* Wilk. III. 3G8. f Wilk. III. 372, 374. 



46 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

the wrists she had, likewise, golden bracelets, which con- 
sisted of several chain-like parts ; on every one of these 
hung still other small golden ornaments, — little figures of 
the gods, animals, plants, and instruments. Thus I saw 
the queen decked when my eye returned from the beauti- 
ful dancer to her chair. Another female-servant ap- 
proached to place on her the costly neck-kerchief and 
girdle, when the old watchman in the ante-chamber where 
we were snored so loud that we drew back affrighted. 
We feared lest they might have heard his snoring with- 
in, — but they had noticed nothing ; and when we again 
looked through the curtain the queen's toilet was over, 
and at a new signal from her hand a table was brought 
forward. She beckoned to one of her playfellows, who 
immediately drew her stool nearer, and the servants, at 
some words of their mistress, hurried out, and, after a 
few moments, returned with a costly little ivory box. 
What did it contain ? 

The queen opened the box : it contained a number of 
little white balls, and the same number, also, of black 
ones, which were divided among the two players. She 
herself took the white, her companion the black, stones ; 
both stood them up on the table, in a row, separately. 
First, I noticed that there was a square in the centre of 
the top of the table, which was divided, after the manner 
of our draught-board, into separate spaces, there being 
twelve times twelve, i.e. one hundred and forty-four 
spaces.* That games were played by the old Egyptians, 
and these of very different kinds, is well known and 
attested by history, and still further by old legends. 
Thus, the Egyptian god, Thoth or Hermes, played 

* Wilk. II. 419. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 47 

draughts with the moon-goddess, Selene, and won from 
her five days.* Rhampsinit, the well-known Egyptian 
king, in his descent to hell, threw dice with Isis or Ceres, 
and won of her a golden mantle, f The queen's play 
was the signal for universal freedom and enjoyment. 
Some also seated themselves to play draughts ; others 
threw dice, which were formed exactly as ours, and 
marked with numbers from one to six, in the shape of 
as many eyes; J while others still played the game of 
morra, already described above, or odd or even. The 
scene became more lively, noisy, and boisterous. Be- 
sides, the female-slaves, with their musical instruments, 
harps, flutes, and tambourines, began to set up a 
tumultuous din which scarcely deserved to be called 
music. 

I would gladly have seen the end of the play, and 
learned whether the queen or her fellow-player won; 
but suddenly the watchman, who had hitherto slumbered 
close by us, roused himself up. The boisterous music 
waked him from his soft dreams. With big eyes he 
stared at us. Horus cast on him a pleasant, roguish 
look, and handed him a gold ring which he drew off from 
his finger. The black cunningly grinned a smile, and 
allowed us to make our retreat unhindered ; probably he 
considered us a pair of young fellows of the priestly- 
class, whom a love-intrigue with one of the court-dames 
had lured hither. It was then as now, "There is no- 
thing new under the sun." 

We left the king's palace. On our wandering from 
the city (for we hurried out into the air as the sun was 

* Diod. I. 13. Plut. Is. v. Os. 12. f Herod. II. 122. 

X Wilk. II. 424. 



48 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

DOW at mid-day) we came to an open space where young 
soldiers were exercising their weapons and engaged in 
various bodily feats of skill. Combats, wrestling, and 
throwing quoits were the chief practice ;* but, without 
stopping, we hastened on, in order to see and be able to 
learn more new things. In a quarter of an hour we had 
reached a gate and entered a fertile plain. 

* Wilk. II. 438, 130. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE VINEYARD — THE PROPHECIES — AX EGYPTIAN 
RATIONALIST. 

We walked toward the west, and in a short period 
reached the famous canal of Joseph, which ran to the 
distance of thirty German miles ("ninety English) parallel 
with the Nile, on the west side, and served for irriga- 
tion, and hy its overflow increased the fertility of the 
land. The overflows of the Nile usually began then, 
and do so now, toward the end of August ; hut they 
were at this time anticipated, for, according to my judg- 
ment, little Horus had transported me into Egypt in the 
time of the fruit-harvest, and probably we were now in 
July, in which month, as I had heretofore read, the vin- 
tage takes place.* The whole tract of land which we 
ed through was, in the highest degree, fruitful; fig- 
trees (Ficus Syeamorus, Lin.) which grew on Loth sides 
of the road overshadowed the way, as every one of them 
spread out its thick-leaved branches so far that it covered 
a space of thirty paces in diameter with its shade. These 
trees had broad, oval, blunt, heart-shaped leaves on the 
stems, and the fruit did not grow, as in other fig-trees, on 
the branches, but was produced in bunches from the 
trunks themselves. This fruit, as I learned from Horus, 
the most common and acceptable food of the poor. 
Although the tree yearly bears ripe fruit, yet we could 

* Hartman's Egypt, pp. 214* 21 ^- 

49 



50 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

not then taste of it, for one harvest appeared to be over 
and the new fruit was yet very small and unripe. 

When we had reached the canal of Joseph we turned 
to the left, toward the south, along its bank. Here, for 
the first time, I saw little Egyptian boats which con- 
veyed articles of traffic, especially fruits in elegantly- 
woven baskets, to the North. They were built of the 
wood of the Egyptian mimosa, because this, in ancient 
times, was considered indestructible in water ; the other 
parts — the sails, ropes, &c. — were formed of the 'bark of 
the papyrus-stalk.* In the smaller boats there were two 
rowers on each side, a fifth was employed at the helm, 
and a sixth about the mast ; in the larger ones a greater 
number of rowers was required ; but all glided on with 
incredible rapidity. f As we proceeded forward we 
reached a garden fenced in, the simple square gate of 
which consisted of three large hewn stones : two of these 
standing upright formed the two sides ; a third was laid 
flat across, upon them. The gate was open, and we 
entered. On the right first met my eye a large water- 
basin, which was planted around with trees; on the 
left lay outstretched one of the most luxuriant vine- 
yards I had ever seen.W The soil, indeed, was moist 
and marshy, but the grape in Egypt, as I afterward saw, 
throve as well in the midst of water as the marsh-plants. J 
The portion of the garden on the left was intersected by 
a broad path, which we struck into ; on both sides of 
it forked sticks of about half the height of a man were 
set in the earth in regular rows ; upon the fork rested 
other long sticks, and on these ran along the most noble 
grape-vines. Beautiful large white and blue grapes hung 

* Pliny, XIII. 11. f wilk - IIL 205 > 211 - 

X Michaud: Correspondenz aus dem Orient, t. ii. p. 12. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 51 

on the vines, and two merry lads of about twelve years 
old ran up and down with rattles, which they constantly 
shook, to frighten away the greedy and bold niching 
birds. Soon we came to other laborers, who broke off 
the grapes and gathered them into a kind of tall wicker 
baskets. The overseer, resting on his staff, stood near 
by, carefully inspecting all. We requested permission, 
which we readily obtained, to take a look at the various 
operations ; at the same time we learned that the owner 
of the vintage was commander of the royal body-guard, 
and was expected toward evening, as he had given direc- 
tions to put everything in order for his visit. 

The chief-superintendent kindly offered to show us, 
and also to explain to us the other arrangements. He 
intrusted his supervision to an old workman, and begged 
us to proceed onward. So we soon reached a building 
resting on pillars, in which the wine was pressed out. In 
the middle of it, something like a yard and a half high 
and four yards long and broad, there was a beautifully 
ornamented box of hard mimosa-wood that had at the 
four corners four pillars, on which rested, likewise, a 
firm wooden roof. From the middle of the roof hung 
down five ropes, to which five workmen held fast with 
their hands. In this box w T ere cast the grapes plucked 
from the vines; the workmen walked about in a circuit 
with firm step, holding constantly by the ropes, and thus 
trod out the grapes on all sides. Soon so much juice 
was trodden out that they stood in the must tip to their 
ankles. A stop-cock was now opened in the side of the 
box and the juice let off into another receptacle. 

But this was not the only mode in which wine was 
pressed out. In one corner stood a large earthen vessel ; 
two workmen put grapes into a linen bag, and in the 



52 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

same way as our washerwomen are wont to wring out 
wet clothes, they seized upon the bag at both ends, one 
twisted to the right and the other to the left, and the 
juice thus pressed* out ran into the vessel standing under- 
neath till nothing but the skins and stems were left in 
the bag, when it was emptied, cleaned, and filled with 
new grapes. 

For preserving the wine thus obtained large two- 
handled pitchers, tapering at the bottom, were used, 
which were then carried away by other workmen and 
leaned in a row against the wall in a deep cellar.* 

When I expressed my surprise at finding such a good 
cultivation of the wine here, so contrary to the old 
writers, Horus replied, " Such and similar vineyards you 
would find in the whole valley of the Nile, even up to 
the island of Elephantis and the Cataracts, where it is 
said to be the southern boundary of Egypt. I could 
name to you at least ten different kinds of Egyptian 
grape-vines, which, as with you, were called after the 
places where they are cultivated, and partly, too, are 
celebrated on account of their excellence. Generally 
here in this country much wine is consumed and drank ; 
it is used liberally in various forms with the offerings of 
the kings to the gods ; even to the priests the enjoyment 
of it is not forbidden, but they receive regular daily 
allowances during the period of their temple-service ; and 
to every one of the two thousand soldiers who form the 
continual body-guard of the king, daily, four measures 
(quarts) of wine are given out by the Government Office 
of Supplies. The beer which we drank this morning is 
more a drink of the lower classes and poorer people ; 
the king, priests, and soldiers, on the contrary, drink 
* Wilk. II. 146-157. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 53 

wine; and even foreign kinds of wine are every year 
brought into Egypt in large quantities, from Greece and 
Phenicia. Why did the Egyptians find it necessary to 
pass a law prescribing to the king only a fixed small 
quantity of wine for daily use, if they had not been from 
the earliest period addicted to the drinking of it ?"* 

While the chief-overseer was giving some directions at 
the wine-presses to the workmen, and Horus and I went 
again into the alley which intersected the vine-plantings, 
I saw in the opposite end a young maiden coming out to 
meet us, who bore in her appearance the most unmistak- 
able marks of sorrow and trouble. On account of the 
noon-day heat she was clad only in a long linen garment ; 
her walk was slow, her look was wild and downcast to the 
ground, her hair fell negligently and dishevelled over 
her shoulders ; she allowed her arms sometimes to hang 
motionless and idly ; sometimes she raised her hands in 
order to cover her face, and probably to hide her tears 
from the laborers whom she passed. With sympathy for 
her I asked Horus w T ho she was. He related to me the 
following sorrowful history :— 

" That young maiden whom you see coming toward us 
there so slowly is the daughter of the steward with whom 
we have just spoken ; her name is Alula. It is now 
almost three years since she became so unhappy, sad, 
and desponding. At that time her father had an able 
workman to whom he could commit all, who took charge 
of his work, and under whose care all throve in the best 
manner. On this account, also, the steward loved him 
very greatly, and readily promised him his daughter's 
hand, as they both cherished a mutual affection. The 

*Rosellini, p. 37G. Wilk. II, 164. Herod. II. 37, 168; III. 3. 
Diod. I. 70. 

5* 



54 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

young laborer was named Muimas, i.e. the Lion-son, be- 
cause his father, on account of his incredible bodily 
strength, was called the Lion. The son, too, was stout 
and powerfully built, in short, an ornament of the 
country people of Egypt. Now it happened that the 
country, and especially Lower Egypt, which we call 
Sahet, i.e. the North, was threatened by a mighty foe. 
The king thought that the standing-army of four hun-4 
dred thousand men of the soldier-class was not enough, 
and therefore determined to double it by strong and 
powerful persons from the other classes.* A call for the 
formation of such a levy to protect the realm went 
through the whole land; in every district appeared 
royal officers, who chose out the most powerful and 
fittest and carried them off, willing or unwilling, with 
them. So Muimas was torn away from his Alula, 
brought to Memphis, there armed, drilled some weeks in 
the exercise of weapons in the use of which he soon 
distinguished himself, and about three miles from here, 
on the other side of the Nile, was attached to a company 
of soldiers who formed the . garrison of a fortified city. 
Thus the months passed on and the longing of the young 
people for each other grew stronger from day to day. 
After half a year Muimas once came from the watch and 
learned that not till two days more he would be called 
again to service ; the desire of seeing her unmanned 
him, and he stole out of the city and hastened to his 
beloved Alula, with the firm purpose to return to his 
place again within the two days. He spent a happy 
day, and the next day, in the morning, broke forth in 
good time to reach the garrison at the usual hour. But 
fortune did not favor him ; hardly a mile from here, 
* Diod. I. 54. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 55 

walking in the open field, lie heard on one side, in the 
bushes, some one crying out, in distress, for help. I do 
not know whether you are acquainted with the wise law 
which commands every one, if on his way he see murder 
or violent outrage, to hasten to assist the sufferer and 
prevent the deed, and which threatens every one who 
neglects it with the punishment of death, as well as to 
the murderer himself. Lovers are good reckoners. 
Muimas had counted ..accurately every minute, so that he 
could be in his place at the right time, but he must not 
stop a moment on his way. So he wavered between the 
fulfilment of this philanthropic law and the fear of hav- 
ing his desertion discovered. Then two men rushed out 
of the bushes, the one defenceless, the other, his perse- 
cutor, armed with a short sword. The persecuted man 
was a friend, known to Muimas, and duty to his fellow- 
man and the law enjoined him to lend his aid. He threw 
himself between the two, and after a quarter of an hour's 
fight, in which Muimas bore away a slight wound, the 
murderer fled. But by this act of philanthropy Muimas 
was rendered forever unhappy. He was obliged, to- 
gether with his friend, immediately to satisfy the further 
demand of the law ; he must haste with him to the near- 
est magistrate of the district to make out an official no- 
tice of the case.* Thus hour after hour passed on, and 
the poor fellow returned sick, pale, and wounded, to his 
garrison, where he had been long missed and his escape 
discovered. He was seized and placed before a court ; 
he made a good defence, but with us the law only is 
supreme, and disgrace follows desertion. He was de- 
clared by the pitiless judges dishonorable, doomed to 
forced labor, and sent to the quarries in Upper Egypt. 
* Diod. I. 77. 



56 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

There he still pines ; there he must, day after day, labor 
in chains without any relaxation. Foreign soldiers, who 
are ignorant of the Egyptian language, there guard the 
unhappy criminals, and the slightest remissness is pun- 
ished by being beaten with cudgels.* In the mean time 
poor Alula's heart is broken. She accuses herself of 
having caused the misfortune ; and who knows but that 
by her solicitations she did not lead the unfortunate fel- 
low to his fault. A half year ago she threw herself at 
the feet of the queen and implored her favor and inter- 
cession ; the owner of the vineyard, also, who was kindly 
interested in the welfare of the poor maiden, employed 
his efforts for the unfortunate man ; but up to this day 
no favorable change has taken place in the matter." 

In the mean time the sorrow-stricken girl had ap- 
proached us. We addressed her kindly; but, as she re- 
garded me as a soldier, and perhaps thereby her anguish 
and recollection were yet more excited, she covered her 
face with her hands and tears burst forth anew from her 
eyes. It was not till her father came up that she sought 
to recover herself, and in a few words, often interrupted 
by her sobs, told us the following particulars : — 

She had, as Ave learned, some time since, with the 
knowledge and consent of her father, left the district, 
and, provided with the necessary food, in the anguish of 
her heart hastened to the temple of Ammon, in the 
desert, to inquire of the Oracle whether and when her 
lover might be soon released. She had shunned no toils, 
no privation, and finally, exhausted and half dead, 
reached the end of her journey. The answer to her 
question was unfavorable. " The time," so the priests 
gave reply, " will not be soon ; till thy lover has lived 
* Diod. I. 78; IIT. 12-14. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 57 

through half his life he will remain imprisoned." " Ah ! 
and he is only twenty-three years old," added the un- 
happy girl, sobbing. With death in her heart, and com- 
fortless, she returned ; and yesterday the walls and towers 
of Memphis greeted her. She determined to ask also 
of Apis, — "in him must dwell the soul of Osiris; from 
him the God himself might reply." She hurried to the 
temple ; she crossed the vestibule ; she entered the shrine, 
and with beating heart stood before the divine black 
bull. Breathless she called out to him the question, 
"Will the king at last show favor and compassion ?" and 
cast down before the animal his favorite food. Apis 
turned, bellowing, away ; he despised the food offered 
him, and by this unfavorable sign gave an undoubted 
negative answer. She was ready to despair, but she 
would yet try the last oracle, that of the children play- 
ing in the vestibule, who are regarded as inspired, and 
whose innocent, accidental expressions are observed in 
going out of the temple and considered as an answer of 
the God. She stepped out of the sanctuary into the 
vestibule. "No ! I will not," she heard the smallest of 
the children cry out, who would not give up from his 
hand a ball with which the whole company were playing. 

" No ! he will not ;" so she concluded her story ; " the 
king will and will not show favor and compassion, and 
I shall never live to see the return of my beloved 
Muimas." 

Vainly we tried to comfort her ; leaning on her father, 
she left us, sobbing. The story had put me in a sorrow- 
ful mood. I was also wilted down by the heat, and 
Horus probably felt very much the same. Silent and 
sad we stretched ourselves out beside the water-basin, 
under a shady tree. 



58 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

" And can you really look with so little compassion on 
the sorrow and sadness of that young maiden?" said I, 
after a quarter of an hour's mutual silence. 

" And what can I do ?" asked Horus. 

"Undeceive her; inspire her with courage; tell her 
the truth ; let her hope for the deliverance of her be- 
loved," cried I, excited. 

" Can I do it ?" replied Horus, quietly, and with com- 
posure. "Do you regard me as omniscient? I know 
only the past, not the future, with which the gods have 
nothing to do. The future lies in the hands of the king. 
Whether he will condemn or show favor, who else can 
know?" 

"Now, then, if you know not," I objected, "how can 
Amnion or Apis or Osiris know? Are not thus all 
your prophecies and oracles lies and deception? Un- 
deceive her, then ; tell her that she must put no faith in 
Ammon or Apis ; that hope may yet be cherished ; that 
the priests — pardon me the expression — are deceivers." 

"The people wish to be deceived," replied Horus, 
calmly. " But if any are in a situation to know the fu- 
ture, it is the priests. They direct the king ; they watch 
his thoughts ; they can know whether they will advise a 
pardon or condemnation. Do not, too, sometimes, pro- 
phets appear with you ; are there not among you for- 
tune-tellers by cards ? And do you believe that the 
cards are less deceptive than our Apis ? Is it not an 
equal chance when with you the cards lie in this way 
or that ; and when with us Apis eats or does not eat ? 
And yet our priests have oftentimes foretold the truth ; 
often announced what was correct. Why? Because our 
priests are all-powerful, and because they learn and un- 
derstand everything; because they guide by invisible 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. b\) 

threads all events ; because with prophets, gipsies, and 
card-conjurors they have their assistants and spies, who, 
beforehand, acquaint them with the relations of life, in- 
clinations and wishes of those who question them ; and 
because, in short, chance often plays a great part, and 
if the prophet is only cunning, and makes his replies 
obscure and mysterious, the half of them at least will 
be correct. Prophesy much and you will be reckoned a 
great prophet. For, on account of one accidentally cor- 
rect answer, the people will pardon a hundred blunders. 
Despise not, then, our wisdom. Our Apis, who announces 
the future, is as good as your divining rods, your magic 
keys, your dancing and speaking tables, and yet more 
wondrous things. Apis is an animal like every other ; 
your wooden prophets are wood, like other wood. Leave 
to the people their playthings which are so necessary 
that for four thousand years they have not been able to 
give them up ; leave to them an imagined look into the 
future !" 

I neither could nor would say anything against his 
views. He spoke like a German philosopher, and I was 
silent. We moved further into the shade, and the sun 
sunk continually deeper in the horizon. A refreshing 
breeze spread abroad a coolness, and I was about to ask 
of my little conductor to resume our walk, when a noise 
of the neighing of horses, the baying of hounds, and 
men's voices in joyous talk came thick upon our ears. 
We quickly sprung up, and, all curiosity, hurried to the 
entrance of the garden. 

On the same road on which we had reached the gar- 
den there approached a procession of ten or twelve 
wagons, (5) dashing forward at the quickest pace. The 
wagons were mostly two-wheeled, every one drawn by 



60 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

two horses. The wheels, which almost all had six spokes, 
turned on an axle round at the end and square in the mid- 
dle, on which the wagon-body rested. This was rounded 
in front and open in the back part, so that the passen- 
gers could mount into it from behind ; the bottom space 
was wide enough to take in conveniently two persons 
standing ; the sides so high that they covered those who 
stood within almost up to their middle. These wagons, 
of course, had no top ; the shaft, fastened below in the 
middle of the axle, stretched along under the wagon *and 
was bent up at the bulge in front, and then reached on 
in a straight direction to the necks of the horses. All 
the parts just described — the spokes of the wheels, the 
wagon-bodies, the edge running along on the sides, and, 
finally, the shaft — were overlaid in various forms with 
metal and adorned with ornaments, and, in some of the 
wagons, even decked and inlaid with precious stones and 
pearls. 

The horses were yoked to the wagon; the shining 
yoke, mostly formed of metal, was of a crooked shape, 
having a bow for the neck of each of the animals ; it was 
fastened on the necks of the horses and to the shaft-pole 
by broad leather straps also rich and variously orna- 
mented in colors. The leather harness was just like that 
of modern times, and hence needs no special description. 
On every wagon stood two persons, the master and the 
servant or driver, the latter holding, the reins with both 
hands ; in his right hand, also, he held the whip, which 
consisted of a wooden handle and one or more thongs or 
twisted cords fastened on it. At the bottom end of the 
whip-stock there was a short leather sling, which the 
driver wound round his wrist, so that he could let 
the whip, when not in use, hang down without losing 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 61 

it.* Hounds, of different species and sizes, the faithful 
attendants of their masters, sprung forward near the 
wagons. Thus the wagon procession quickly drew near, 
which already at the distance had attracted our notice 
by the noise which it occasioned. In front, as we after- 
ward learned, was the master and proprietor of the gar- 
den, the already-mentioned commander of the royal 
body-guard, named by his friends Atnute, i.e. the Un- 
believer, because in confidential discourse he had often 
allowed to gleam out unbelief as to the gods of the State. 
He was born at Memphis, and traced his genealogy back 
to the oldest times of the first priestly colony, and pre- 
tended to be in the possession of important original 
documents and writings which contained valuable infor- 
mation respecting the origin of the Egyptian State ; but 
no one had seen them. He was, in the highest degree, 
scientifically educated; in his youth he, like all the 
wealthy Egyptians, had been instructed by the priests 
in the various kinds of writing, and in arithmetic, 
geometry, astronomy, and even also in astrology, f As 
a youth he already had such a special gift for the solu- 
tion of difficult questions, and exhibited so remarkable a 
natural understanding, that the priests felt they must 
either draw him over to themselves, and commit him to 
their interest, or destroy him. They tried the former 
course; he was initiated into the first degree of the 
temple-mysteries, but he had soon seen down into the 
lowest depth, and quitted the temple forever, dissatisfied. 
About this time he had also drawn on himself the eyes 
of the reigning monarch by his peculiar boldness and 
bravery, and was soon advanced to his present prominent 
position. But the scornful and indignant priests labored 

* Wilk. I. 339, 354. f Diod. I. 81. 

6 



62 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

for his overthrow ; their vengeful hand waved, like the 
sword of Damocles, over his head. 

In the other wagons followed his friends, most of 
them, likewise, members of the warrior-class, all, under 
that glorious sky, being clad in simple tunics. Their 
woolen mantles were to be put over them in the evening, 
on their return, and were, therefore, rolled up and bound 
on to the edge of the wagons. Having now reached the 
garden, the masters sprung from the wagons and entered. 
By Horus's advice I introduced myself to them as a 
soldier from Pelusium ; my little conductor had rapidly 
run his eye over them and ascertained that no one from 
that region was in the company, and that I could not, 
therefore, be punished for my falsehood. I was kindly 
greeted, and hospitably invited to share in the vintage- 
feast. At the further end of the garden a tent was 
erected ; thither the company betook themselves, and I 
followed as a mute spectator. The interior arrange- 
ments of the tent were simple, just such as the steward 
had been able to make. Simple wooden tables, and com- 
mon fourfooted reed chairs with perforated wooden backs, 
stood around.* The host excused himself, on this ac- 
count, with a short, courtly address of welcome. They 
seated themselves and spoke of the news of the day, 
while the steward appeared with some slaves and brought 
in food and cups. The simple meal which the steward 
had prepared in haste consisted of various meats, dried 
fish that were caught in Lake Moeris, and, as vegetables, 
roasted lotus-bulbs, which in size and taste were quite 
like our potatoes. f The black bread, such as I had 
tasted in the baker's shop, was specially praised as 

* Wilk. II. 192. f PHn y Nat - Hist - XIIL 12 - 






THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 63 



something rare and excellent by the wealthy Egyptian 
epicures, who usually were wont to eat wheat bread. 

The short, simple meal, in which I also shared, and 
which, by its good relish and cleanliness of preparation 
perfectly satisfied me, was soon over ; and scarcely was 
it ended, when the master gave orders to bring in some 
pitchers of the must or wine-juice just prepared. The 
cups were filled, and Atnute first emptied his own to the 
health and welfare- of the company. The rest followed 
his example, but I could hardly bring my mind to it, 
while I recollected in what way some hours before it had 
been pressed and trodden out with the feet. Reflection 
or hesitation, however, was of no use to me ; suddenly, 
in the middle of the tent stood, right over against me, a 
slave with the frightful skeleton of a dead man in his 
hand, and cried out to me the horrible words, — 

"Look on this; drink and be joyful, for so wilt thou 
look after death !"* 

Thus compelled, I dashed off my cup* 

The fresh, unfermented juice of the grape tasted 
sweet and pleasant, and appeared to be not in the least 
intoxicating ; I, therefore, willingly allowed my cup to 
be filled anew by a slave who stood prepared to do so. 
Soon the pitchers brought were emptied, and now, after 
the fresh must had been praised on all sides, began the 
proper drinking bout. Other kinds of wine also were 
brought in from the cellar, — wines from Upper and Lower 
Egypt, from Philse, Thebes, and Sais, and even foreign 
wines from Greece and Phenicia were not wanting, f 
The company drank bravely, sometimes from one, and 
sometimes from another sort, and every moment they 
became more and more gay, jovial, and unrestrained. 
* Herod. II. 78. f Rossell. II. 377. Herod. III. G. 



64 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

Only the steward, who went back and forth to receive 
and execute the commands of his lord, could not forget 
the misfortune of his child, and continued sad, gloomy, 
and melancholy. Even the master, although he was 
busy in drinking, observed his sadness, and asked the 
cause. 

But hardly had the steward answered, and mentioned 
the name of his daughter, Alula, and her misfortunes, 
than the whole company broke out in commendation of 
her, praised her virtue, beauty, and modesty, and loudly 
called for her to come in. 

Alula was called in by her father. 

Bashful and timid she entered the tent, into the circle 
of the men, but her fear was groundless ; she was re- 
ceived kindly and respectfully by all. She must tell 
her story, and with sorrowful countenance and resigned 
heart she narrated her recent experience, as well as what 
had transpired before. 

"It is all a trick!" cried out Atnute, when she had 
ended her story. "Believe not the prophecies of the 
gods; there are no gods !" And although he was re- 
buked by the warning looks of his more rational friends, 
he went on thus : — 

" I will reveal to thee, and to all of you, my friends, 
the past. The first men whom the earth brought forth 
lived simply, and unsinning ; without envy, hatred, 
or passion, they pastured their herds, and in har- 
mony ate the fruit of their industry ; but they did not 
remain so long. All the passions of which man is now 
capable reposed and slumbered in his nature, and gradu- 
ally came into appearance and influence. Inequality and 
injustice got the upperhand ; the stronger oppressed the 
weaker, and at last one, by the power of his spirit, sub- 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 65 

jugated all the others. Thus in Meroe there was a wise 
man named Sabo. But could he long hold in order the 
unbridled masses of the people, with all their lusts, in- 
clinations, and passions ? No ! He needed a strong 
body-guard ; stout troops which might protect the power 
which his own spirit created. The body-guard was — 
superstition ; the troops — the gods. He found out the 
only means which can afford comfort for all human sor- 
rows, troubles, and injustice— religion. He spake to 
his fellow-countrymen of the gods ; of a supreme God, 
Ammon. If he saw the oppressed, who were lamenting, 
he pointed them to Ammon for help ; if he saw the un- 
just or wicked, he threatened them with the wrath and 
punishment of Ammon ; if he saw the sick and suffer- 
ing, he promised them alleviation by prayer to the gods. 
And every one had a wish, a petition ; every one needed 
a consolation, a hope ; an invisible power must give them 
aid and comfort where human power could not comfort 
or help them. But still more. The wise Sabo pre- 
tended to have intercourse with other gods ; to have seen 
them, to have talked with them, and to have received in- 
structions from them. So he became a mediator between 
men and the gods ; he became the all-powerful priest of 
the divinity, and, what no power on earth could ac- 
complish, invented names of innumerable gods, — they 
founded a state and civil security. But this power was 
neither Ammon, nor Osiris, nor Isis : it was a divine 
breath which all here on earth cannot comprehend or 
explain. Men had already gone out from the schools of 
our priests who had proclaimed to other nations a new 
and only God, and called him the Eternal ; the most 
High ; the Almighty ; the Benefactor ; the Dispenser of 
blessings. Do we not say the same of our gods ? Do not 

a* 



Gii THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

the inscriptions of our temples proclaim the same doc- 
trine ?* The God of the Shepherds — that Jehovah is 
our Ammon ; and that well-known Moses, of whom you 
have all heard, with his god will govern his new-founded 
State firmly and surely as our forefathers governed the 
particular States which extend from Meroe over all 
Egypt, even up to the shores of the sea toward the 
North. A higher, I readily allow, a diviner spirit, runs 
through all nature — that is, Order. But this spirit is 
neither Ammon, nor Osiris, nor Isis, nor Jehovah : it is 
an inconceivable and inexplicable spirit ! Men pray to 
it sometimes under the name of this, and sometimes of 
that god. Who propounded to Ammon, Osiris, Thoth, 
as the founders were named, the holy divine laws ? Or- 
der, Nature, gave them, urged them on the human law- 
giver. Dissolve them, and the universe falls into nothing. 
Do you now conceive the wisdom of Sabo ? The wise 
man would obey these laws without divine command, for 
he recognizes their necessity; but the people need a com- 
manding, forbidding, rewarding and punishing divinity. 
And now, Alula, What is your Ammon, whose oracles 
you trust, to which you have so fervently prayed ? What 
is Apis, whose signs of marvel you give yourself up to 
with such unshaken faith ? A consolation, a refuge for 
the good ; a terrific image and scarecrow for the wicked ; 
a playball in the hand of the wise ; the invisible scepter 
in the hand of powerful rulers ; a chain, finally, which 
with iron force binds kings to the will of the almighty 
priesthood ! If you ask how I obtained this knowledge, 
how these false gods have arisen here or emigrated into 
Egypt, this, too, you may learn. Our State is not as 
old as we boast. In the earliest time,( 6 ) south of Egypt, 

* Plutarch de Is. et Os. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 67 

between the immeasurable wastes and the Eastern Sea, 
the dwelling-places of the Ethiopians, the priestly State, 
Meroe, was known as the mightiest and most civilized and 
famous. As the highest god, the creator and ruler of the 
world, according to the doctrine of Sabo, Ammon was 
adored ; his priests chose after their number the king, who, 
clad only with the name of this dignity, and always de- 
pendent on the priests, remained a play-ball in their hands. 
From Meroe to Egypt went out several priestly colonies, 
with similar institutions, constitutions, and laws, which 
grew up into priestly States that were governed after the 
names of elected kings, but, in fact, by the ambitious 
priests. Besides the lesser ones, were particularly cele- 
brated, among these, Memphis, Thebes, and Heliopolis. 
The power of the priests increased to unlimited hier- 
archies ; the kings remained only tools in the hands of the 
almighty priesthood. Thus centuries passed on ; the 
relation and the internal power of the wise, these pos- 
sessors of all science and all salutary knowledge, re- 
mained the same. Intrenched or hid behind these mys- 
teries and their secrets, they could boldly and fearlessly 
offer resistance to every assault of an internal foe. Only 
a few rulers dared to raise themselves above the power 
of the priests. Once only began the morning dawn of 
a freer development. The illustrious Sesostris boldly 
united all these little States under his sceptre ; the power 
of the king extended over the whole empire, grew into 
strength and authority ; the power of the priests was 
threatened, and had to tremble lest it should be forced 
into the background. That period of splendor is over ; 
all the States are, indeed, united into one realm, but the 
priests bear sway as before, and the king is powerless 
in their hands.' ' 



68 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

He had spoken thus far ; most were silent, bewil- 
dered by his bold language ; some laughed. Only one, a 
gray-headed soldier, ventured to contradict him and to 
take the power and existence of the gods under his 
protection. But Atnute would not let him speak out. 
"I will prove to you," he cried, more and more heated 
by wine, — "I will prove to you that your pretended 
gods have lied to poor Alula." He beckoned to his 
servant and to the young maiden that they should come 
up nearer. 

The servant gave to him a papyrus-roll, elegantly 
wrapped up, which he slowly unfolded. 

" There, read that !" he cried to the maiden, while he 
held the sheet before her eyes, " and see that men can 
effect more than our gods ! Here is the secret of the 
king, — Muimas is pardoned!" 

" Pardoned!" cried Alula, with joyful astonishment. 
The next moment she and her father lay at the feet of 
the skeptic, and wet with her tears his hands, which 
they caught hold of and kissed, full of gratitude. The 
friends sprang up and crowded together ; they wished 
to see for themselves the important document. But 
Atnute waved them back to their places, caused the 
cups to be filled anew, and with a gracious look on the 
father and daughter, whom he quickly raised up, he 
said, " This cup to innocence and love ! Rejoice, Alula; 
before the ten days of this week have passed your be- 
loved will be at your side. You know the estate which 
I own east of the river ? I will lease it to him ; you shall 
go with him into the house that is new-built there. Now 
go in peace." — Happy in her new thoughts and hopes, 
she withdrew. 

As soon as the men were alone, and after they had 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 69 

emptied one cup to the health of the gracious monarch 
and another to that of their host, they returned to their 
earlier conversation, although the minds of many were 
so clouded by their enjoyment of the wine that they 
scarcely had sense enough to understand. The old 
gray-haired soldier, who had already contradicted At- 
nute, turned to him this time with the question, — 

" So you then doubt every possibility of searching 
into the future, since you have no gods, no Ammon, no 
Isis, no Thoth, no Serapis ; and for you no soul of Osiris 
dwells in Apis ?" 

"Not so;" replied Atnute. "I believe only in that 
which I see, and which I have myself learned by expe- 
rience. I have never seen a god with my eyes ; I have 
had no correct answers from Apis. But there is an in- 
reversible power — a fate, which no one can escape, and 
this the stars determine. Astrology is the only true 
and unobjectionable thing which your superstition con- 
tains. " 

" And why the stars and not the gods ?" asked several 
voices. 

"Because their effect is visible," he went on. "Does 
not every one feel the efficient power of the sun ? Do 
you not see that by it all nature is warmed, quickened, 
and rendered fruitful ? What causes the regular suc- 
cession of day and night ? The sun ! What the sea- 
sons ? The sun ! Why do the flowers bloom ? Why do 
the fruits ripen ? Because the sun and his beams call 
them forth. There are flowers which blossom by day 
and close their cups at night. Is it the gods, or the sun 
and moon, that cause these things ? Does not the first 
morning-ray awaken you? Does not wearisomeness 
overcome you when it disappears in the west? And 



70 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

when the sun and moon create and operate so evidently, 
why do not in a less degree and invisibly the rest of the 
planets ! Why not also Seb, Thoth, Surot, and Mo- 
loch?* The stars determine our fate; in the hour of 
our birth they plant in our inmost souls the germ of good 
or evil ; of fortune or misfortune ; of superiority or in- 
feriority. I was born at noon ; the sun stood in its highest 
power in the mid-heavens, and this betokens something 
great, high, sublime. But Moloch and Sebf looked un- 
favorably upon me when I opened my eyes to the light, 
and on that account a violent, painful death awaits 
me.J(7) 

" But how many are born at noon ! Have they all, as 
you, become commanders ?" objected one of the guests. 

"No!" replied Atnute. "You forget our different 
classes. Whoever is born at this hour in the priestly 
order, he will, without doubt, become an able priest ; 
and the farmer, the merchant, the sailor, can distin- 
guish himself in his occupation ; every one can do 
something remarkable in his own class, and reach to the 
highest point, if the sun favor him. But we forget our 
drink. Ho ! slaves ; fill up the cups !" 

They drank, and drank on, one cup after another. 
Shall I sketch the end of the carouse ? Many staggered 
when they rose up ; many had already fallen down 
dead-drunk on the floor. Here the servants were busy 
in steadying, by their hands, their masters to the wa- 
gons, on which they were to return to the city. Those 
who were wholly drunk were carried off. Here, again, 
I noticed an old Egyptian custom, of bearing all, even 
the heaviest burdens, on their heads. § This custom, as 

* Saturn, Mercury, Venus, and Mars. f Mars and Saturn. 

X Ovid, Am. I. 8, 29. \ Herod. II. 35. Wilk. II. 151, 385. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 71 

it appears, the old Egyptians had in common with the 
negro slaves of the present day. It is related that a 
rich planter in the West Indies, once pitying his. 
negroes on account of the heavy burdens which they 
bore on their heads, and to afford them relief and ac- 
custom them to means of conveyance less injurious to 
health, imported from Europe several hundred of the 
well-known wheel-barrows. When the ship landed with 
them, he sent his slaves to the wharf with the commis- 
sion that every one of them should bring home such a 
barrow for his future use. After half an hour they re- 
turned together, every one with his wheelbarrow on his 
head ! 

So it was here. Every sick person was taken up 
by three servants, laid on his back, raised up and 
placed so that he rested, with his back downward, on 
the heads of the bearers. The foremost one supported 
his back with his head; with the left hand he held the 
head, heavy with wine; with the right, the left hand 
hanging down loose of his senseless master ; the second 
head was under his thighs; the third stood under the 
feet of the drunken fellow. Thus they carried him out, 
and the burden evidently caused less headache to them 
than his hard drinking did to the patient.* 

Finally the tent was forsaken and empty. I sought 
Horus. I would have gladly asked many questions, 
which the discourse of the guests had raised in my 
mind. But look ! The little fellow lay quietly in 
a corner. He had long ago lain down to rest, and 
now he was softly asleep ; a happy childish smile played 
round his lips. Perhaps he had not heard the godless 
words of the skeptic. I was also fatigued. The night 
* Wilk. II. 168. 



72 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

broke in, and I stretched myself down on the floor of 
the tent beside Horus. 

Yet for a long time before my eyes floated the 
various wonderful scenes which I had witnessed; but 
finally I yielded myself up to refreshing slumbers. And 
thus ended my first day in Memphis. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SECOND MORNING — THE BURIAL — FISHING IN 
LAKE MOERIS — THE LABYRINTH — A HUNT. 

At the first appearance of the morning-dawn Horus 
awaked me. All was still and deserted ; the birds only 
joyously carolled their morning song. I cast a look at 
the desolation which surrounded us : chairs overturned, 
empty pitchers and porcelain cups broken in pieces, and 
even a pair of sandals, which one of the guests had lost 
and forgotten to take with him, lay strewed about the 
floor. I was driven, by this confusion, forth into the 
open air, and I went out from the tent. A flock of 
geese waddled along, cackling and undisturbed, in the 
cross alleys of the garden; swans swam through the 
dark watery mirror of the water-basin ; busy bees were 
already flying away and back and gathering honey. 
Only the men yet slumbered and dreamed of future 
fortune or ill-luck. 

I came up to the water, Horus following me. Quickly 
our clothes were thrown off, and a cool bath refreshed 
and invigorated us for our new wanderings. The water, 
which was conducted by a canal from the Nile — as this 
river was on the rise and the overflow at hand — was 
turbid and of a reddish color, — a circumstance that has 
been ascribed, in modern times, to the vast multitude of 
insects which the heat generated therein, or to the 
thickened particles that the stream brings down with it 

7 73 



74 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

from Sennaar. It might have been sweet and well- 
tasting, but I could not on that account decide on 
tasting it ; the contrast was too great, when I remem- 
bered our excellent pure and clear spring-water. It 
was believed, also, of the water of the Nile, that it had 
a tendency to fatten, and for this reason they never 
gave it to the sacred bull, Apis ; the Egyptian priests, 
too, on this account, wholly abstained from its use. 

When, after some half an hour or so, we came out of 
the bath, and were about to dress ourselves, all was full 
of life in the garden. The steward, who remembered 
us, and probably had already perceived us in the gar- 
den, sent two slaves to us with articles necessary for the 
arrangement of our toilet. They brought us an elegant, 
round, highly-polished metallic mirror, and a little box 
with the well-known JciM, a fragrant ointment which the 
old Egyptians were wont to prepare from the fruits of a 
plant called Sillicy'prium, growing on the banks of the 
river and lake. Scarcely had we anointed ourselves 
and put on our clothes than the steward himself ap- 
peared with a kind morning-greeting. A breakfast, 
consisting of bread and wine, was quickly brought in, 
and Alula entered, no longer sad and desponding, as 
yesterday, but joyous and lively, springing about and 
singing. We bade them both farewell, and, with hearty 
thanks, passed through the gate and struck into the 
road leading to the Lake Moeris, which was already 
quite astir, since, as Horus informed me, there was to 
be a funeral of a royal scribe. Many were walking on 
before us ; many hurried by us, partly curious specta- 
tors, partly those who, as the judges of the dead, must 
pronounce a judgment respecting the deceased. 

At the lake a large number of people were already 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 75 

assembled, — men and women of all classes, the wealthy 
and the poor, who had poured in partly in wagons and 
partly on foot. On the lake, close to the shore, stood 
the splendid boat, variegated and richly adorned with 
gold, which was to bear the sarcophagus and the 
mourners across the lake to the place of burial. 

The funeral-procession was not long in coming. It 
was opened by six servants of the temple, who carried 
articles and vessels necessary for the sacrifice of the 
dead. They, as well as almost all taking part in the 
procession, were clothed only about their loins with a 
white linen apron. The first bore a low wooden frame 
filled with fruits and flowers of all kinds ; another the 
most beautiful white dove ; a third led by a rope a 
young calf destined for the sacrifice ; the rest joined in 
with different kinds of pitchers and vessels. After these 
followed the well-known so-called Pastophori, also six 
in number, with various-colored painted little wooden 
shrines or temples, which, to my regret, were closed 
upon all sides, so that the contents could not be seen ; 
but they contained, as similar receptacles, statues of the 
gods, of the sacred animals, or of the forefathers of the 
dead man. His slaves next bore the articles of furni- 
ture which he had particularly made use of during his 
life, — a field-chair, a one-seated and a double-seated 
cushion-chair, and finally, also, a two-wheeled wagon, 
such as I have before described, with all its appurte- 
nances. To this was joined the state-chariot of the de- 
ceased, yoked to two spirited brown horses. It was 
empty: the driver, holding the reins, walked along sor- 
rowfully beside it. Next to this chariot again followed 
other servants, the first with costly vessels and the 
golden censer for incense, already described in the 



76 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

king's sacrifice ; the others with boxes, pictures, orna- 
mental articles, golden neck-chains and amulets, wea- 
pons and insignia, which partly belonged to the dead, 
partly to the king, whose faithful scribe and servant 
he had been. Little costly statues of the gods, likewise 
of precious metals, beautiful stones, or parti-colored 
glass — among which, especially the well-known Horus- 
hawk, with a man's head, pleased me — were borne by 
in the procession on particular repositories, and also a 
small blue boat on a sledge. 

After these followed seven more men, every one with 
two little wooden boxes filled with palm-branches; then 
the well-known mourning women, clad in long white 
robes, their hair dishevelled, beating their breasts with 
their hands, and singing a wild, mournful lay, in which 
they sometimes lamented the death of the deceased, 
sometimes praised and lauded his virtues. Finally, ap- 
peared the high-priest, marching forward seriously and 
gravely, with a gold vessel and the incense-censer in his 
hands. He was clad in a white apron, and had over it 
a leopard's skin, the fore-paws of which he had so 
bound on his left shoulder that his right arm remained 
free, and the tail of the animal hanging down, almost 
touched the ground. Immediately behind the priest 
followed the sarcophagus, standing on a boat, which 
again was fastened on a sledge, and was drawn by four 
beautiful white bullocks and seven men. The sarco- 
phagus itself was of cedar-wood, richly decorated with 
carved image-work and inscriptions, and covered with 
fragrant flowers. Behind the bier followed the whole 
company of the afflicted friends.* In this order of 
march the procession gradually drew nigh.( 8 ) The 
* Wilk. Plate 83, Suppl. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 77 

judges of the dead, forty-two in number, had, in the 
mean time, all assembled, and arranged themselves at 
the lake in a semi-circle ; the sarcophagus was borne 
into the midst, while all who had taken part in the pro- 
cession placed themselves around it. The curious popu- 
lace, Horus and I numbered with them, crowded up 
impetuously, and inclosed in a circle the whole cere- 
mony which was now to take place. At a sign from 
the high-priest, the mourning-women became silent, and 
a death-like stillness reigned throughout. Now one of 
the friends entered into the middle of the circle, placed 
himself at the head of the sarcophagus, turned his face 
to the sun, rising in the east, and, with his hands up- 
raised, uttered a prayer in the name of the dead to the 
eternal Sun-god. It would be tiresome to the reader 
were I to give this prayer, as he has already read 
several like it in the preceding sketches. The friend 
spoke for the deceased; he began with the words, — 
"Thus says Osiris-Hopra." — Hopra, i.e. favorite of the 
sun, was the name of the person to be buried, and it is 
well-known that the dead were wont to be regarded as 
united in one person with Osiris in the world below, be- 
cause he, after his earthly death, passed into the lower 
world, and there entered on his office as ruler and 
judge.* After this introduction, by which, therefore, 
the dead is brought in as speaking, followed then a 
prayer to the Sun-god and the other gods ; he suppli- 
cated for his reception into the sacred abodes, and, in 
forty-two strophes, sought to purify and justify himself 
before the forty-two judges of the dead in the world 
below, whose earthly representatives surrounded the 

* Compare my Todtengericht bei der Alten iEgypter, (Court of 
Death among the old Egyptians,) Berlin, 1854, p. 12. 

7* 



78 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

coffin in a semi-circle, from as many transgressions. 
He finally concluded in these words : — 

"But have I sinned in life? So the guilt was not 
mine, but of that other ; therefore forgive and purify 
me, ye gods in the world below !" Then he pointed to 
a particular urn which contained the stomach and 
bowels taken out from the mummy, and which after- 
ward, as I saw, being regarded in a certain measure as 
a sin-offering, was sunk in the lake ; for the old Egyp- 
tians considered the stomach as the cause of every 
spiritual and bodily evil.* 

Now began the judgment proper of the dead. When 
the friend had ended his prayer and had retired among 
the others, the president of the court — who was distin- 
guished from the rest of the judges of the dead by a 
particular tablet with the image of the goddess of jus- 
tice formed of a precious stone, worn on a gold chain 
about the neck, and hanging in front on the breast — 
raised his voice, and spoke aloud seriously and solemnly 
to the assembled multitude : — 

"Hopra, the son of Petamon, born of his mother, 
Bert-Reri, (rose-blossom,) the royal scribe, is he whose 
mummy lies in this sarcophagus, and who implores for 
an honorable burial. He was born on the seventh day 
of the month Thoth, in thfe year of the dog-star period, 
1212, in the sixth year of the reign of the ever-living 
God, the father of our king ; he died seventy days ago, 
in the month Payni. Whoever knew him and points 
him out guilty of a sin, to whom he owed money ^ with- 
out having paid it, whom he has injured in body or 
estate without atoning for his evil conduct, let him come 
forward and accuse him openly to his judges before us. 
* Porphry. de Abstin, IV. 10. Diod. I. 82. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 79 

We will judge strictly ; we will condemn or acquit. But 
let every one beware of false, malicious, vengeful accu- 
sations ! The punishment will fall back from the accused 
upon the accuser."* 

A heavy, unearthly stillness succeeded, — only some 
curious persons raised their heads to see whether any 
one would come forward with an accusation, and the de- 
ceased be pronounced unworthy of burial. The brother 
especially looked anxiously around, though he had paid 
all the debts of the departed known to him before the 
day of the burial. But might there not be some evil- 
minded or dissatisfied creditor left, and now enforce his 
debt and his right ? All waited anxiously. No one 
ventured to whisper a single word. But no accuser ap- 
peared, and the judges entered into a circle in order, 
apparently, to consult together. Thus passed a pain- 
ful quarter of an hour. Finally the judges returned to 
their former places, and the president advanced to the 
sarcophagus, raised his hands, and spoke these solemn 
words, which penetrated every heart : — 

"We have adjudged respecting thee, Hopra, son of 
Petamon, son of Bert-Reri. We have found thee justi- 
fied ; and so, by virtue of mine office as president of 
the judges, I speak thee free from all sins and guilt. 
Descend, justified, to Amenthes. May also there the 
scales of justice be favorable to thee ; may Thoth in- 
scribe thy name in the roll of the guiltless ; may Osiris 
find thee also unpunishable, as we thy earthly judges of 
the dead have found thee ! The court permits thy burial ; 
it grants thee a place of repose the other side of the 
lake, in the bosom of the mountain !" 

Scarcely had the judge ended, than joy succeeded, 
* Diod. I. 92, 97. 



80 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

and rejoicing in place of the former mourning. The 
high-priest sacrificed to the gods ; he himself and some 
of the relatives of the blessed deceased uttered eulogies 
on his upright and virtuous conduct ; and finally, amid 
the offerings, prayers were put forth to the gods below 
the earth, and they were implored to receive the de- 
ceased among the pious in the kingdom of Osiris. After 
all these solemnities were finished, in which the people 
collectively bore a part, the priests gave the signal for 
the passage across the lake. 

The beautiful boats already mentioned received the 
particular persons who had formed the procession. All 
the parts of the boats were adorned with variegated 
colors, specially painted in gold, green, red, and blue, 
and with religious decorations. Some of them had tall 
and spacious cabins, others little open shrines or tem- 
ples resting on pillars, like those borne by the Pasto- 
phori. In the first boat was placed the sarcophagus 
and a sacrificial table ; the high-priest mounted into the 
same, with the most wealthy relatives, and during the 
whole passage incense was diffused. The helmsman of 
this ship was named Charon, and to him the Charon 
of the Grecian infernal world, who ferried the shades 
across the Styx, must have owed his origin and name. 
A second boat bore the mourning women ; a third, in- 
struments for performing sacrifice, (as on the other side 
of the lake the same sacrificial ceremonies were to be 
repeated;) and others, finally, the rest of the objects 
and persons of the procession. Thus they pushed off 
from the shore, moved according to their size by from 
six to twenty rowers ; and the gold and red-painted oars, 
the gilded keels and helms, glittering in the beams of the 
sun now mounted higher, held my eyes enchained for a 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 81 

long time. All the rest of the people collected, also 
gazed at the procession of the vessels until they grew 
continually further and further off; but for a long while 
they shone like springing trout and lively gold-fishes on 
the horizon.* 

We now walked along the lake on the right, and 
Horus, whom the beautiful glorious morning had ren- 
dered talkative, informed me that he would show me an 
Egyptian fishery. He told me many things that I 
already knew, and which had long been familiar to me 
from old writers, but I allowed the little fellow the plea- 
sure of playing the teacher. He described to me the 
richness of the Nile and Lake Moeris in fish, and gave 
me a statement of the daily produce from the fisheries 
of the latter in thousands of dollars, which I believe 
he as well as Diodorusf somewhat exaggerated, and 
added that King Moeris formerly assigned this revenue 
to his wife as pin-money. All these were things well 
known to me, and I hastened to ask him questions and 
lead him to other communications. 

" Fishing, I presume, is here carried on, as a business, 
by a particular class of people?" I asked, during a 
short pause, in which he took breath. 

" Yes, in a great measure ;" he replied. " But I will 
not deny that with the higher classes also fishing is 
among the noblest of their favorite occupations ; and 
among our great people there may be probably as many 
passionately devoted to it as with you and among Eng- 
lish gentlemen. They make it, indeed, as convenient 
for themselves as possible. Slaves attend them on the 
bank of the river ; if the ground is moist, a mat is 
spread out, a chair taken with them from home is placed 
* Wilk. Suppl. plates 83, 84. f Diod. I. 52. 



82 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

on it, on which the master then sits down comfortably. 
If the day is hot, and the sun burns, there are other 
slaves with a shade and conveniences at hand.* To-day 
you will not see the noble, but only simple fishermen by 
profession; a jovial, lively little people, who are so over- 
loaded with work that they can scarcely find time to 
dress and salt all the fish they take." 

"And what fish, particularly, do they take and con- 
sume with you," I further inquired. 

" Carp, sturgeon, perch, trout, and many other large 
kinds, with the names of which I will not tire you." 

"And are all these kinds of fish dressed and eaten?" 

"All," replied Horus, "with the exception of the 
unhealthy ones, consecrated to Typhon, the ' Lepidotus, 
Phagrus, and Oxyrrhynchus,' of which you well know 
how they conducted toward the dismembered Osiris. 
For this reason also the priests eat no fish, or at least 
none taken by a hook, for they fear that sometimes one 
of these three different kinds might have bitten at the 
same bait."f 

"And what kinds of fish were these three? Are 
they easily to be distinguished from the rest ?" 

" I do not exactly know with what fish I must com- 
pare them," said Horus, after a short reflection. " The 
Oxyrrhynchus, which was not eaten by the Oxyrrhyn- 
chites, living not far from the Kunopolites, is a sort of 
sturgeon which, as its Greek name indicates, is distin- 
guished from the other fishes of the Nile by its pointed 
nose ; the Phagrus is the eel, only longer and thicker 
than it is usually found with you; and the Lepidotus, 
finally, which has caused so much perplexity to your 
* Wilk. III. 52. f Plutarch de Is. et Os. 7. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 83 

learned men, is a great scaly fish of the Nile, like the 
salmon. " 

Amid such kind of conversation, during which I had 
cast a look at the lake, the view of it being, for the 
most part, broken and hidden from us by plants of all 
kinds on the banks, we had walked a considerable dis- 
tance ; and suddenly drawn off from the interesting dis- 
course by a tumult of singing, talking, and commanding 
voices, I directed my eyes to a large place which we had 
just reached, and where the lively spectacle of an Egyp- 
tian fishery presented itself with all its peculiar and 
parti-colored scenes. There were from one to two hun- 
dred persons, who, partly on land and partly from larger 
or smaller boats, had thrown out their nets and hooks 
into the lake. I saw two sorts of hooks, partly simple 
or slender wires on which the bait was fastened, and 
partly rod-hooks, which consisted of pretty thick staffs, 
and lines or cords hanging down from them ; but the 
most, as well from the shore as from the boats, fished 
with large drag-nets, which they drew back and forth 
through the water, and which, like ours, were formed 
with meshes, out of twine.* The fishes caught by the 
hooks or nets were cut open and dressed on the shore or 
the boats, then salted and hung up in the air to dry. 
Some of them were so large that a man could carry only 
one of them at a time, as he placed one hand under 
the head, and grasped with the other the tail ; others 
were just cut into halves, and three or four were strung 
by the gills on twine, and hung on a pole, which two 
men took up on their shoulders. The knives, which the 
men sitting on the shore and engaged in dressing the 
fish made use of, were long ones, with short handles, 
* Wilk. III. 37, 53, 55, 57, &c. 



84 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

the blade in the form of a half-segment of a circle of 
from sixty to seventy degrees, with rounded cutting- 
edge and sharp point. But all these various occupa- 
tions, which I looked upon with much interest, were ac- 
companied with songs by the merry, jovial people. 
Royal stewards also stood round about to watch the fish- 
ing and urge up the lazy, as the income of the fisheries 
makes a part of the state-revenues. Herodotus, it is 
well known, gives the income from Lake Moeris at 263 
talents, and so more than $200,000, [computing the 
talent at £163 15s. English.] 

Near by stood a pretty large square building, made of 
rough brick.* It was a store-house of salted and dried 
fish, which were kept here until transported to Memphis. 
To this house Horus now conducted me; and the in- 
tendant of the house, who occupied not an unimportant 
position and had many scribes as his subordinate offi- 
cers, met us kindly. In the building into which he in- 
troduced us were fish of all shapes and sizes hung upon 
long poles; the scribes sat busily occupied with their 
work at the door, counted the fishes brought in and 
entered the number in the register. That we should 
taste of them followed of course ; and even the German 
salmon, I must confess, is far behind their delicate flesh 
and pleasant relish. But the sun was getting higher 
continually, and, although I would gladly have asked 
many questions of the intendant, I was obliged to yield 
to my conductor's wishes, who pulled me by the strings 
of my tunic to go forward. 

So we began our return to Memphis. On the way 
the Labyrinth occurred to my mind, which I knew was 
* Ottfried Miiller : Archaeology, \ 226. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 85 

situated on Lake Moeris, and I asked Horus if it would 
not be possible to get to it and visit it. 

"It is impossible/' replied he, briefly; "it lies too far 
off from our way ; and on foot, as we are, we could not 
think of it, to walk thither and back again to Memphis 
to-day. But to satisfy your curiosity I will describe it 
fully, and give you all the necessary information re- 
specting it." 

I was content, and Horus began. 

" The external impression and appearance of the 
Labyrinth is this : Think of three vast masses of build- 
ings which in their breadth of three hundred feet 
inclose a quadrangular space of about six hundred feet 
long by five hundred broad. The fourth side, one of 
the lesser extent, is bounded by a pyramid situated be- 
hind it, which Herodotus also mentions,* and which is 
three hundred feet square, and so does not reach en- 
tirely up to the side wing of that mass of buildings. f 
The Grecian Herodotus was correct when he said that 
even the most admirable buildings of his countrymen — 
for instance, the famous temples of Samos and Ephesus : 
yea, the largest Egyptian pyramids — must yield to this 
huge structure. And yet from the outside we see only 
the half of the immense building, that which stands 
above the ground ; the second half, corresponding to 
the first one, is built below the ground. If you suc- 
ceed in entering into it, and, without losing yourself, 
should wander through the whole Labyrinth, you would 
find twelve palace-like temples, six above ground and 
six below, with innumerable adjoining chambers, galle- 
ries, and winding passages. The twelve great palaces 
or halls rest round about on pillars, which for the most 

* Herod. II. 148. f Lepsius' Letters, p. 75. 

8 



86 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

part are of white marble ; all, the roof, walls and 
floors of the whole building throughout, are of stone, 
and the pillars as well as the walls are adorned with 
hieroglyphic inscriptions. In every one of the twelve 
halls stands a statue of one of the twelve well-known 
superior gods, from Ammon to Thoth, and the figures 
of the animals sacred to the particular divinities there 
occupy a place in the representations. These various 
large halls, as I have said, are connected together by 
side chambers, galleries, and stairways, the whole num- 
ber taken together of the single chambers, large and 
small, amounting to three thousand, of which one half are 
above the ground and the other half below. If any 
one wishes to ascend to the highest chamber of the 
building, ninety steps lead up to it, and as many to get 
down to the ground again ; so, if you wish to go down 
to the lowest chamber under ground, you find ninety 
steps necessary, and, on the other hand, the same num- 
ber to come back to daylight.* After every ten steps 
there is a special landing-place. "( 9 ) 

"And who was the builder of this astonishing work?" 
I asked, with new curiosity. 

"I know," added Horus, "the old historians give 
different accounts about it, but not one of them appear 
to me to have fallen upon the right one. When Hero- 
dotus relates that the twelve princes, whom he calls 
Dodecarchs, built it as a common monument and tomb,f 
he is in a great error, for it had its origin at a far 
earlier period; and to-day, when I conduct you about 
here in Egypt, long before the Dodecarchy, it is already 
finished in all its parts. The occasion of this false 
supposition may be the accidental agreement of the 
* Pliny, XXXVI. 6. f Herod. II. 148. Diod. I. 86. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 87 

number of palaces and of the kings. So, too, Diodorus 
makes the Labyrinth to be the place of burial of 
Pharaoh-Mendes ; and Pliny, a work of Petosychis, 
who lived 3600 years before his time. To Manetho, 
also, who attributes its building to the 12th Dynasty, 
shortly after the great Sesostris, you need give no 
credit. Or do you in general suppose that this gigantic 
building in all its parts could have been the work of a 
single king ? Not of a single one — no ; ten kings and 
more lavished all their resources and all their revenues 
upon it." 

"If I am not mistaken," I broke in, "one of my 
most learned countrymen,* who has himself visited the 
ruins, states that he found inscriptions in the same 
which clearly mentioned the name of King Amenemha 
the Third, and that this king was buried in the pyramid 
standing near." 

"And what follows from that?" proceeded Horus. 
"Nothing else than that this king, whose name, besides, 
ought not to be written Amenemha, but Amenemes, be- 
cause the last hieroglyphic symbol, the forepart of a 
lion, denotes the letter S, and not Ha ; that this king, 
I say, had a share in the building of the structure, that 
he was one of the many under w^hose reigns the par- 
ticular portions were made, and perhaps built one of the 
palaces." 

"But what, finally," I asked further, "was then the 
object of the building ? It must indeed have been a 
greater and more sublime one! I have often sought 
and strove to ascertain it ; but, alas ! always in vain." 

"Must I yet tell you?" asked Horus, astonished. 
"After what I have told you, and I have described 
Lepsiua' Letters, p. 76. 



88 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

it to you, I should have supposed that you would be in 
no doubt about it. Pliny has already put you on the 
right track, who says that most persons held the Laby- 
rinth to be a building consecrated to the sun, and that 
this is the view most worthy of credit. Consider the 
name itself. The Greeks made out of it Labyrinthos ; 
we Egyptians pronounce it Lapurontho, and this signi- 
fies c Sun, king of the world.'* You will object that the 
sun is not called La, but Ka ; remember, however, that 
we make no great difference between R and L, that one 
and the same hieroglyph denotes both sounds ;f that, 
for example, Wine, in different dialects among us is 
sometimes expressed by Erp and sometimes by Elp. If, 
now, the Labyrinth, this glorious astronomical struc- 
ture, was consecrated to the sun, then the twelve halls 
or palaces at once lead us to the well-known twelve 
signs of the zodiac, through w^hich the sun moves, and 
which also are named thus by other nations ; for in- 
stance, by the Greeks the twelve abodes, and by the 
Arabians toivers or palaces, because they believed them 
to be inhabited by deities. On this account, here in the 
Labyrinth, the statues of the twelve great gods were 
set up in particular palaces as in their heavenly dwell- 
ings. Six of these palaces are above and six below the 
ground, just as six signs of the zodiac or divine abodes 
are above and six below the horizon. I might speak 
further of four times ninety steps partly above the 
ground and partly below, and which conduct around in- 
side the building. What can you understand by that ex- 
cept the four quarters, with their 360 degrees of the 
zodiac, which the sun must go through?" 

* La-puro-n-tho . 

f Compare Thoth, pp. 163, 164, and Ling. Copt. Gram. p. 4. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 89 

"But in all there were three thousand chambers, 
as you have informed me ; what does that number 
signify ?" 

" Here I must confess the imperfection of our astro- 
nomical observations," said Horus, with a sigh. " The 
gradually-receding motion of the equinoxes, which, ac- 
cording to your more accurate reckoning, amount in a 
hundred years to 1° 23' 10 7/ , was well known to us in 
general; but we took inaccurately, for every one hun- 
dred years, only a single degree, consequently, accord- 
ing to our view, the recession, after three thousand years, 
amounted to only 30 degrees, or one whole sign of the 
zodiac. Do you not now perceive the meaning of those 
three thousand chambers ? They mean the number of 
years which, as we believe, were requisite for the point 
of the equinox to pass through the whole zodiac ; in 
a word, they represent symbolically the walk of the 
god from one palace to the other, and every chamber 
means the advance of one year. To this corresponds, 
likewise, the doctrine of the migration of the soul, 
which Herodotus has mentioned to you. He relates, 
that when men die and their bodies pass into corrup- 
tion, every one of the souls wander into another living 
being ; after they have wandered in this way through 
all kinds of land, water, and flying animals, they come 
again into the new-born men. This wandering goes on 
for the period of three thousand years.* For with 
their three thousand years began with the Egyptians a 
new cycle of the world, and the same cycle of the world 
of equal duration is to be found in the religious books 
of the ancient Parsees, resting on the same astronomical 
foundation. f Thus, then, the Labyrinth offers a terres- 

* Herod. II. 123, f Ilistorische Theologische Zeitslicrift, V. 1. 

. 8* 



90 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

trial image of our astronomy and astrology; and be- 
cause in every heavenly house, and, indeed, in every 
degree, a deity rules, so at the same time it is in all re- 
spects an Egyptian Pantheon ; and finally, also, it has 
a political reference, because the whole of Egypt, ac- 
cording to the type of the heavenly zodiac, with its 
triads, its twelve signs of the zodiac, and thirty-six 
decades, ever since the time of Sesostris has been di- 
vided into three great portions, twelve provinces, and 
thirty-six nomes. Officers from every one of these pro- 
vinces could assemble here, and in the corresponding 
palaces offer sacrifices to their respective divinities, and 
thus they were often used in political unions and for 
great days of all kinds. Our religion, our division of the 
country and its administration, our astronomical and as- 
trological calculations, all rest upon one foundation, — 
the division of the sun's orbit ; and as this division was 
represented by the later astrologers on the rolls of 
papyrus and walls of the temples, even so here it was 
placed before the eyes of the people in h, vast, splendid 
building, exciting the astonishment of all travelers, — in 
a Labyrinth." 

I must admit that Horus's explanation surprised me, 
although it did not perfectly satisfy me. Would an 
astronomical and astrological object be a sufficient one 
for the erection of such a structure ? But I would not 
communicate to him my doubt and misgiving, in order 
not to make him angry. I will confess here, however, 
that I was convinced he had told me only half of the 
truth, and that there was still a mystery untold. Be 
that as it may, we see that the Labyrinth must forever 
remain a Labyrinth to the learned, and for their explana- 
tions and hypotheses. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 91 

We had walked on toward the east, and again reached 
the canal of Joseph. "Can you swim?" Horus asked 
of me. 

"Alas, no !" I replied, and looked on the water which 
separated us from the bank on the other side. 

"Then we must walk along on the canal till we meet 
a compassionate boatman who will set us over," an- 
swered my little conductor. 

I looked to the right and left and soon saw a little 
boat standing at the bank. The boatman had tied it 
there and stretched himself out in the luxuriant green 
of the Nile-grass. The heat of the day had worn him 
down, and it was a long time before we could awake 
him. Finally he rubbed his eyes, and gradually raised 
himself up ; but as soon as he understood our request 
he hurried to the boat to unloose it. The Egyptians 
were in general of a sober, morose disposition, but, as I 
have already had occasion to observe, kind, and un- 
wearied whenever they could do a service to a fellow- 
man. To practice the greatest hospitality toward every 
one, to help every one to the best of their ability, to 
give comfort to the suffering, and to bring immediate aid 
to any one in danger, were virtues which were enjoined 
by their religion ; and the thousand years' priestly rule 
had so imbued them that such had become almost the 
reigning custom and manners. 

We quickly sprang into the boat ; the boatman seized 
one of the oars and I another, and, although the current 
was quite strong, we soon reached the opposite bank. 

"En-urot-nak," — i.e. we thank you, — cried Horus to 
the man, and sprang on the land. 

We hurried forward without stopping, though the sun 
stood high, and the sweat dripped from me, while Horus 



92 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

did not seem to suffer at all from the sun. No wonder ; 
the son of Osiris must be accustomed to being near to 
his father. 

Suddenly there rose a tumultuous noise ; men's voices 
calling aloud, and the barking of hounds came thick 
upon our ears. A hare and two gazelles passed near us 
on our path, in wild flight ; hunting-dogs, distinguished 
by their collars, dashed by after them ; an arrow whizzed 
through the air, and the hare lay weltering in its blood. 
In a few minutes the hunters sprang forward ; young 
persons, partly armed with bows and arrows, partly with 
a noose, the well-known lasso.* 

While one of them lifted up the hare we saluted the 
others, and soon recognized among them a person be- 
longing to the social circle at whose drinking-bout we 
had been present yesterday. I asked him about the 
best animals which they were wont to hunt and trap in 
Egypt, and whether he had been successful in getting 
many. 

"With the love of boasting belonging to all hunters he 
told me about the different kinds : gazelles, rock-goats, 
wild goats, and oxen, hares, antelopes, wolves, foxes, 
hyenas, leopards, and lions, were among them. With 
special delight and enthusiasm he spoke of a hunt at 
which he was present in a desert, while on a journey 
made with his father to Thebes, and in which, as he pre- 
tended, he himself had killed two hares, a gazelle, and 
a hyena. He particularly commended the maternal love 
of the hyena, who had turned against the whole com- 
pany of hunters, consisting of forty persons, in order to 
defend her young, but which was struck down by an 
arrow from his bow.f 

* Wilk. III. 16, 16, 18. f Wilk. III. 22. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 93 

"See here!" he added, and pointed to an elegant 
hound which stood by him, and responded to his mas- 
ter's caresses ; "see, here is my constant attendant. My 
friends call him the unwounded, for often as he has 
been attacked by furious beasts and wild oxen, he has 
always escaped, as if by a miracle, unharmed." 

I collected more detailed information respecting the 
mode and manner of the chase. Wild, raging beasts, of 
course, were for the most part attacked at a distance and 
shot w^ith arrows, while, on the contrary, the wild 'oxen, 
gazelles, and others, were often caught alive by the 
lasso, which the hunters endeavored to throw over their 
necks and horns.* The hounds were leashed, as with us, 
led by particular servants, and set free at the beginning 
of the chase. When they formed larger hunting-parties 
for the desert, they assembled in numbers, with a great 
collection of servants and slaves, who carried with them 
the necessary food — bread, meats, water, and wine. 
They mostly engaged in such excursions in wagons, as 
they were of essential use in the pursuit. Our hunting- 
company with whom we spoke had also come in wagons, 
but had sat down under a shady tree for breakfast when 
they noticed the animals, one of which had but just now 
been struck down before my eyes. Finally, I learned 
also that fox-traps w T ere known to the Egyptians, in 
which sometimes, too, larger animals, and even hyenas, 
were caught, f 

" Come ; let us go back to breakfast ;" said the young 
man with whom I was conversing and had struck up a 
quick friendship. "You will have to be contented with 
cold food and a cup of wine ; immediately after break- 
fast we will hasten our return to Memphis, whither your 
* Wilk. III. 15. f Wilk. ITT. 2. 



94 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

road leads. It will be a great pleasure to me to take 
you in my wagon ; the driver can look out another place, 
and I will myself undertake the guidance of the horses. 
I will take you to a country-estate of my father's, close 
to Memphis, and, if you are fond of farming, the ar- 
rangements there may be interesting to you." 

I took the hand so kindly offered. Scarcely a hundred 
paces off from the place where the hare had fallen stood 
the tree under which the company had already seated 
themselves and begun their breakfast, which was going 
forward. It was a simple, genuine hunter's breakfast : 
bread, little meat-pies,* and wine, were the principal 
articles. As soon as the last cup was emptied we burst 
forth. The wagons, which stood near by, were called 
for. I sprang into my new friend's; he followed me, 
and received the reins and whip from the hands of his 
servant; Horus was lifted up and taken in between 
us. With a full trot the horses hurried off to the city. 

From the account of hunts with which the young man 
sought to entertain me on the way, I learned many items 
of information. Among other things, he said to me : — 
" The killing of the Nile-horse, or hippopotamus, affords 
a special pleasure. This animal is seldom to be found 
in our region, but in great numbers in Upper Egypt, and 
when at Thebes, I accompanied my father on such a 
chase. They commonly go into a little boat and attack 
the beast with a broad, flat blade armed with barbs, 
attached to a rope, and thrown, like a spear, at the head 
or back, to wound and entangle him. When the Nile- 
horse feels himself thus assaulted he sinks down to the 
bottom, but he is wounded anew with spears every time 
he comes up, until he is wholly exhausted, and then 

* Rosellini, II. 2, p. 4G4. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 95 

they throw a noose over his head and drag him to the 
land. If he is not ' yet dead they kill him at last by 
beating him on the head with iron bars.* The hunting 
of this animal is also otherwise of the greatest use, and 
very profitable, because his thick hide is prepared and 
applied in so many different ways. They cover with it 
shields and helmets, make whips and scourges of it, and 
when it is dry and hardened can even make spear-shafts 
of it.f Commonly they join this hunting with that of 
fowls, which make their nests in vast numbers among the 
water-plants, and are killed from the boats by means of 
the throwing-stick. This weapon is a simple bent wooden 
staff, with which they seek to strike the bird on the 
neck, and whereby it is killed, or at least stunned. But 
as the use of this weapon requires great force for the 
throw, and the thrower might thus lose his balance and 
tumble overboard, so there are usually others, too, in 
the boats, who hold him by the body or feet to prevent 
his falling. ,, t 

These and similar things the young man told me, un- 
til suddenly we reached a cross-way, and the other wa- 
gons turned off to the right toward Memphis, but we to 
the left to the country-estate. In a few minutes it lay, 
with all its farm-buildings, before us. 

* Wilk. III. 71. Diod. I. 35. 

f Diod. I. 35. Pliny, VIII. 25. Herod. II. 71. 

J Wilk. III. 39, 41. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE VILLA — THE BRICKYARD — THE STABLES — RETURN 
TO MEMPHIS — THE SHOEMAKER — THE TEMPLE OF 
PTAH, APIS — THE SERPENT-CHARMER — THE LI- 
BRARY. 

The country-estate, which belonged to the father of 
the young man, and in which he sometimes spent several 
weeks, and occasionally, also, the whole summer months, 
was, as respected the farming operations, leased to a 
very able farmer, who paid for it to the owner a yearly 
rent of a thousand golden rings — a pretty large sum at 
that period. For, while stamped coin (in our sense of the 
word) were unknown to the old Egyptians, ( 10 ) in their 
intercourse they made use of gold and silver rings, ac- 
curately weighed and marked with a sign of their 
weight.* The whole estate was inclosed by a canal con- 
ducted from the Nile, and which we crossed on a simple 
unartistic bridge before we reached the gate. The gate 
was shut, but as soon as the rumbling of our wagon was 
heard on the bridge it was thrown open, and several ser- 
vants appeared, who saluted the son of the owner in the 
well-known style. They bent the whole of the upper 
part of the body forward, and while they let their hands 
hang loosely down, they almost touched the ground with 
the ends of their fingers. As soon as we had passed 
through the gate we came to a green lawn ; three slaves 

* Wilk II. 10, 11. 
96 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 97 

sprang forward ; the first held the horse in front by the 
bit, the second took from the young man's hands the 
reins and whip, and the third helped us to get out. Be- 
fore us, and on the right and left, there were outstretched 
broad, shady alleys of trees ; behind them rose the tall 
farm-buildings and the dwelling-house, with their flat roofs. 
We turned directly to the right, and passed a reservoir 
entirely walled in by stones and provided with steps for 
the drawing of water, and so reached the portico of the 
dwelling-house, which I wished to look at immediately 
in all its parts.* This portico, the columns of which 
were adorned above on the capital with banners and rib- 
bons, led us to the main gate, which in form resembled 
the city gates of Memphis, already described, though 
very much smaller; above, and on both sides of the 
door, were long hieroglyphic inscriptions, which were in 
praise of the original proprietor and builder of the 
house ; told of the events of his life, and described his 
wealth. His name was Pakemis ; he was governor of 
the nomos Memfi, under King Sesostris, and at that 
time built this villa in the vicinity of the capital. In 
his thirtieth year — so the inscription stated — the bird 
Phoenix had come from the East and burned itself in 
the city of the sun.f He had so greatly distinguished 
himself by the wise government of the district intrusted 
to him, that Sesostris, when after nine years he returned 
with vast booty from his wars, made him a present of 
fifty choice slaves, taken in war, and many gold and 
silver vessels. A later portion of the inscription, added 
after his death, stated that he died at an advanced age, 
leaving behind him many children and grand-children. 
The doors of the gate were of sycamore-wood, and 

* Wilk. II. 94, PI. V. f Tacit. Annal. VI. 28. 

9 



98 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 



were ornamented with tasteful carved work. When we 
entered we came to an open court ; on the right hand 
stood a sitting statue of Pakemis. Opposite to the gate, 
somewhat raised and furnished around with steps, I saw 
a square hall resting on twelve high pillars, filled with 
the most costly furniture, it being the reception-room 
proper. Here on elegant tables were arranged original 
relics : foreign vases which Pakemis had formerly re- 
ceived from Sesostris out of his spoils, little statues of 
gods of old and more recent times, weapons of all kinds, 
gold chains, and other articles of ornament. After we 
had proceeded through this hall and descended the steps 
on the other side, a pretty high wall, with three gates — 
a large one in the middle and two smaller ones on either 
side — separated us from a second court. We entered 
through the middle gate, and found ourselves now in a 
second court, having on the right and left lofty blocks of 
houses, and inclosed by a high wall, with a back door. 
This court was more like a garden, and planted with 
tall shady trees. Into the two side buildings, on the 
right and left, other doors again led, through one of 
which we went into a new pillared passage, and from 
this reached to single rooms level with the ground. 
All these rooms in the basement — which with much curi- 
osity I walked through — were store-rooms, filled with all 
imaginable articles of food. In one chamber were taper- 
ing wine-pitchers, ranged about against the walls ; in 
another olive-jars ; in another large smoked fishes, hung 
up in rows ; others still contained furniture of all kinds, 
bowls, plates, pitchers, and cups. In the outermost 
corner was the kitchen, with the hearth, water-troughs, 
pots, cooking-spoons, and other utensils. All these 
rooms we ran through hastily in order to reach the 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 99 

upper story, in which were the sitting-rooms, the sleep- 
ing-chambers, and those for guests. We came to this 
story by a hall and stairway, in which beautiful, broad, 
massive steps led above. When we had mounted them 
we next came to a large eating-room, and then into a 
most elegantly-furnished parlor. (H) Fatigued by our 
much walking about in the wide building, we seated our- 
selves on a soft divan ; Horus curled himself upon the 
carpet at my feet. 

" Which of your ancestors bought of Pakemis's family 
this estate ?" I asked the young man. 

"My grandfather,' ' he replied. "If you wish I can 
show you the deed of it, which is carefully preserved in 
this house." 

He stepped up to a wooden case standing on the op- 
posite side of the chamber where we were, and which, 
like our bureaus, rested on four feet, and perfectly re- 
sembling in its shape our German houses. It was a 
square chest, with pointed triangular roof. In the upper 
edge of the roof there were on both sides a round knob, 
so that the slanting sides of the roof could be raised, 
while it turned on the lower edge with hinges.* In this 
way the chest was opened ; and I rose from my seat in 
order to look more closely and examine its contents. 
The polished cover was painted with hieroglyphics ; the 
sides, on the contrary, were inlaid in the highest artistic 
style of Mosaic, with variously-colored wooden blocks, 
which appeared to be glued into the wood of the chest 
itself. In the chest lay a great number of rolls of papy- 
rus mixed together, every one elegantly wound round 
with a neat band. It was some time before the young 
man could find the deed mentioned. Many rolls were 
* Wilk. III. 170. 



100 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

untied, unrolled, and rolled up again as soon as any 
was seen not to be the right one. Finally he hit 
upon that which he wanted, and kindly handed it to me. 
It was executed in hieroglyphic writing, inclining to the 
hieratic characters, and by the aid of little Horus, who 
had stepped up close to me and taught me respecting 
this and that word unknown to me, I read the fol- 
lowing : — 

" In the third year of the reign of his majesty, N.N., 
son of the sun and King of Upper and Lower Egypt, on 
the 19th Mechir, it is, that Pakemis, the son of Horus, 
has sold this country-estate, inherited from his grand- 
father Pakemis, with all its appurtenances, to the royal 
governor." Then followed an accurate description of 
the whole plot of ground, with account of the length, 
breadth, and height of every building belonging to it, 
of every particular portion of the land, &c. &c. Then 
it further said: " He has received of Athothis, the son 
of Petosiris, a thousand well-weighed weights of gold, in 
rings, chains, and large pieces of gold, in the presence 
of the following witnesses." Now followed twenty 
subscriptions, partly written beautifully, and partly 
hurriedly; beginning, of course, with the name of the 
lawyer who had drawn up and executed the contract of 
sale, namely, Petecarpocrates, the son of Amonorythius, 
the scribe.* 

I asked respecting the contents of the rest of the rolls. 
They were, as he told me, partly other contracts of his 
father; partly judicial documents of the family, and legal 
papers ; partly papers of an economic description, — to 
wit : accurate accounts of the yearly income of the 
estate, and careful measurements of the particular lots. 
* Wilk. II. 57. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 101 

He showed me, among other articles, an accurate map of 
the whole estate, of which no surveyor in our day need 
to have been ashamed. Every particular measurement 
was noted in the most careful manner, and the length 
of every boundary-line written down in hieroglyphics. 
They were all given in ells and palms, and as I knew 
that the old Egyptian ell was about twenty-two and a 
half Leipzig inches,* [nearly the same, likewise, Eng- 
lish,] so I had a complete representation of the size and 
extent of the whole estate and all of its parts. 

" Such accurate plans are necessary," added the 
young man, " since the Nile yearly overflows the whole 
region, removes the boundary-marks, and, without this 
precaution, litigation as to their respective properties 
might easily arise between neighbors. The magistracy 
also possess such plans and maps, in order to be able to 
decide cases of this sort; and every variation, even the 
minutest, must be immediately reported to them. For 
the calculation of the estate-tax, too, which is not small, 
the superintendent of the district must know precisely 
the size of every piece of ground." 

While we were still talking, we heard a loud outcry 
below, in the court, and, out of curiosity, I hurried dow^n 
with Horus to see what caused it. The son of the 
owner of the estate followed us. When w T e had come 
into the fore-court we saw a sorrowful execution going 
on. A slave, who had probably been guilty of a slight 
fault in his work, was undergoing punishment. They 
had wholly stripped him and laid him down with his 
face to the ground ; two of his fellow-slaves had to hold 

* Seyffarth, Beitriige zu Kenntniss der Literatur, Kunst, Mytlio- 
logic imd Geschichte der Alton. Egypter Heft VII. p. 151. 

9* 



102 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

him down in front , by his hands, and a third behind, by 
the feet. The slave-overseer, or task-master, of whom 
there were several in every large domestic establish- 
ment, pitilessly smote with his long stick upon the poor 
wretch.* I hoped that the young master would put a 
stop to the cruel punishment, or at least inquire into its 
cause ; but he looked smilingly on the whipping until the 
task-master had tired his arm and the punished man 
was let go. All of them then disappeared through a 
side-door in the house. 

" Poor fellow !" I whispered to Horus. " What great 
fault has he committed ?" 

"It is perfectly right," replied my little conductor. 
" Our slaves are the dirtiest, most unfaithful and thank- 
less people in the world. They are partly captives in 
war, partly criminals, and partly purchased slaves ; a 
miserable set of fellows, who deserve no better treat- 
ment ; and the lawgiver did right in allowing the mas- 
ters to beat and imprison them at their pleasure, for 
otherwise the slaves would get the upper-hand of us if 
they were not ill-treated by us; and had they not to 
stand in fear of us daily and hourly they would abuse 
their masters and put them into anxiety and terror." 

" In confirmation of this I can relate to you a pretty 
story of a slave of my father's," said the young man, 
who had heard Horus's last words. "My father once 
had a young and fine-looking slave who came from Asia, 
brought here by an Arab caravan, and who was bought 
on the boundary. But he was lazy and disobedient, so 
that he had often to be punished and chastised by the 
overseer in the vineyard where he was put among the 
other laborers. On this account he conceived such a 
* Wilk. II. 41. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 103 

hatred to the overseer that he swore a bloody revenge, 
and sought in every way to destroy him. He succeeded, 
alas ! only too well. After various other attempts had 
failed, which always brought on him new punishments, he 
stole from the overseer his long staff, which had a gold 
knob at the head, and on which was engraved the over- 
seer's name. Armed with this staff, the slave by night 
went out upon the road, murdered and robbed a rich 
merchant who was traveling past, and threw the bloody 
staff by the corpse. The next morning the dead body 
was found, and the staff lying near bore too strong wit- 
ness against the unfortunate overseer ; and though he 
had nothing in his possession from the robbery, and 
although, too, he asserted up to his death his innocence, 
yet he was condemned by the high and wise court of the 
one and thirty to be strangled." 

"Horrible !" I replied. "And how was the wicked- 
ness of the slave discovered ?" 

"When, after the execution of the overseer, he be- 
lieved himself safe, he boasted in secret of his act to 
some of his fellow-slaves, who, as well as himself, had 
hated the overseer. A thoughtless word here and there 
thrown out finally came to the new overseer ; he told of 
it to my father, who gave information to the officers, and 
when they searched the box of the slave they found in 
it the treasures robbed from the merchant. Thus Osiris 
finally brings all to light ! The slave confessed his crime, 
and was first scourged almost to death, and then exe- 
cuted. But as they could not recall to life the overseer 
put to death while innocent, they could only publicly 
establish his innocence, as brought to light, by bestow- 
ing on him an honorable transportation of his corpse ; 
and the priests commended him in their prayers to the 



104 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

special favor and mercy of Osiris and the other judges 
of the dead below." 

During this narrative we had walked through the 
court, and had entered through the back-door before- 
mentioned into a large open place, on which, as the 
young man told us, a large new store-house was about to 
be erected. The preparations for it had so far already 
gone forward that a great number of slaves were busied 
in forming the bricks required. ( 12 ) On the right side I 
saw large heaps of clay, which was worked over by some 
people with hoes ; the necessary w T ater was brought by 
two others, in pitchers, from a reservoir close by. Small 
chopped straw was mixed with the mass of clay, to give 
it greater tenacity and firmness. And now I understood 
how the passage in the second book of Moses (Exodus 
v. 3) is to be interpreted, where it is said, " Ye shall no 
longer give the people straw for making their bricks." 
We must not here think of straw as fuel, as Luther 
says, since in Egypt the bricks were not burned; but 
rather regard this straw as always in Egyptian brick, 
mixed in with the clay.* Further to the left the slaves 
were occupied in forming the bricks, while they pressed 
square wooden forms into the clay, drew the bricks so 
shaped out of the forms and laid them near each other 
on the ground, where they quickly became dry in the 
burning heat of the sun. Still further on at the left 
lay the already dried bricks, which some men with a 
wooden yoke on the back, having ropes on both sides, 
bore away and arranged in piles for further use. In the 
whole business there were two task-masters present, 
one of them sitting near those who were working over 
the clay, the other walking about, with his stick raised, 
* Rosellini, II. 2, p. 259. 



1 



THKEE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 105 

to overlook the whole. The slaves might be easily re- 
cognized as foreigners : their complexion and formation 
of face and beard, clearly marked them out from the 
Egyptians ; they bore about their hips the usual Egyp- 
tian apron, but so hung that it rather formed a kind of 
short hose, like the Oriental Miknasim. On the other 
hand we could see in the complexion, clothing, and 
physiognomy of the task-masters, decisive marks of 
their Egyptian origin.* 

We passed through the workmen, and in my heart I 
pitied the poor slaves, who here in the greatest heat of 
mid-day, the sun upon their heads, must perform such 
hard and heavy work. The sweat ran down over their 
faces, and many were minded from fatigue to rest a 
little, but the stern look of the overseer drove them im- 
mediately to work again. Behind the place lay the 
stables, to which my young friend led me, to show 
me his father's wealth in cattle. They were low build- 
ings, having only small windows, and constructed of 
coarse bricks, and thus they formed a striking contrast 
to the elegant dwelling-house which we had just left. 

We entered by a low door into the first stall which 
lay before us. This was by means of a broad passage 
that led from the entrance to the opposite side, and 
divided, by a narrow way crossing right and left, into 
four parts, in which the cattle stood close to each other ; 
every one of them tied by a rope to a ring fastened to 
the floor, f What reminded me of my own country and 
modern times was, that every one of them was marked, 
as with us, on the flanks. These marks, as Horus told 
me, were made by a branding-tool, and burned in after 
the cattle had been fastened by the fore and hind feet 

* Wilk. II. 90. Rosellini, II. 254. f Wilk. II. 184. 



106 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

tied together, and thus rendered incapable of resistance. 
I could imagine to myself their unfortunate condition 
in this cruel moment, and from my heart I pitied them.* 
But I was soon drawn away from these thoughts, and into 
wonder at their powerful forms and stately horns ; and I 
likewise learned that it was a custom to adorn them with 
neckbands and little bells when they were led out to pas- 
ture. The sheep-stall adjoined this stable, and was con- 
nected with it by a door, for sheep were had in special re- 
gard in Egypt, and particularly in the vicinity of Mem- 
phis ; since they could shear them twice a year, and, be- 
sides, they were used as sacrifices by some people, as, for 
example, the inhabitants of the Mendesian Nomos, and 
were eaten by the inhabitants of Lycopolis.f Still fur- 
ther on, and adjoining, were other stalls with asses, which 
were mostly used for riding, and horses ; the latter 
especially, of which there were at least twenty together 
in one stable, reminded me of the elegant wagon pro- 
cession I had admired the day before. They were the 
most beautiful, choice animals ; large and slender like 
the English race-horses, particularly distinguished by 
their long tails, that almost reached to the ground. The 
harness, too, yokes, and all which belongs to wagon- 
furniture, hung on the walls. The horse was used by 
the old Egyptians for drawing only, never for riding ; 
therefore I looked around here in vain for a saddle or a 
saddle-cloth, as I had noticed among the asses. 

After we had rapidly gone through the stalls, and had 
expressed our wonder at the wealth of the owner, we 
passed through a side-door to a hen-yard, where we were 
greeted by the cackling of the hens and the hissing of 

* Wilk. III. 10. 

f Diod. I. 36, 37. Herod. II. 42. Wilk. II. 368. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 107 

the geese. A flock of doves also flew up, scared, as we 
approached. Opposite, lay the corn-crib, a high build- 
ing in which were large wedge-shaped bins, like our 
hay-ricks, with a window above, to which a ladder con- 
ducted in order to pour in the corn, and a door below to 
take it out again when needed.* The grain, as is well 
known, was trodden out on the threshing-floor by cattle, 
— which I mention here, by the way, because neither 
to-day or on the following one had I any opportunity to 
see a threshing scene of this kind with my own eyes. 
As Horus told me, it was then always a merry and jovial 
time ; the ox-drivers usually sung a joyous song, while 
they continually drove on the beasts with the whip.f 
Near the corn-crib was a low shed, in which the farming- 
tools were kept. I cast an inquiring look into it to 
learn accurately about them. The plough was a most 
simple thing, but made perfectly corresponding to the 
object. It consisted of two parts : first of all, of a 
crooked piece of wood, on the fore-end of which was 
the iron ploughshare, and was divided on the opposite 
side, that bent upward, into two ends, connected by a 
cross-piece of wood, which cross-piece the ploughman 
was accustomed to take hold of with the hand to guide 
the plough. The second part was the shaft-pole, to 
w^hich the oxen were yoked ; it was fastened to the place 
where the plough-beam was divided into the two parts. 
Two persons commonly were occupied with the plough, 
one who guided it, the other who drove the cattle with 
a whip or a club. J Another instrument with which they 
used to loosen the soil was the mattock, or hoe ; it was 
of wood, and in the shape of a Roman capital A, consist- 

* Wilk. II. 136. f wilk - IL Series I. 87, 88. 

t Wilk. II. 40, 42. 



108 THEEE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

ing of a hand-stock, and a second piece of wood, some- 
what crooked, narrow or broad, and sharp at the bottom, 
fixed into it, these two parts being joined together in 
the middle by a rope wound round. They used with 
this mattock to follow the plough and break in pieces 
the clods. Little tubs, likewise, stood round about, in 
which the seed-grain was kept and was wont to be carried 
out on the field. There the sower made use of a little 
woven basket which had a handle, and was filled with 
the grain; he held it in his left hand and scattered 
abroad the seed with his right, as he every time took a 
handful from the basket.* A great number of sickles, 
likewise used in harvesting, were hung up in the shed, on 
nails. They were small crooked knives with a wooden 
stock, which could be managed with one hand. Finally, 
I saw a considerable number of fans, with which they 
used to separate the grain from the chaff on the thresh- 
ing-floor, f I will mention, in conclusion, an instrument 
that I had not before known. It consisted of a broad 
piece of wood set with pins of metal close to each other. 
It was rested in a slant direction on one foot, so that the 
end furnished with the metal pins was about one foot 
and a half above the ground, the other end resting on 
the earth. When I asked Horus the object of this in- 
strument, I learned that it was used to separate the 
grain from the straw; for as they caught hold of a 
handful of the mowed sheaf below and drew it through 
the pins, the straw remained in the hand, and the grain 
so stripped off fell to the floor.J After I had looked at 
all these instruments we went back to the garden, which 
lay in the middle of the farm-buildings. A low pavilion, 

* Wilk. II. 48. f wilk - n - 86 > 90 - 

X Wilk. II. 99.— [It quite resembled our flax-hatchel.— Tr.] 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 109 

to which broad marble steps conducted, and that rested 
on pillars of the purest alabaster, invited us to repose ; 
but we had already lost too much time, and were obliged 
to hurry aw r ay. I must go back from the stillness of the 
country again to the noisy Memphis. On this account 
I bade our host farewell as soon as, in our walking on 
further, I noticed a passage out from the garden and a 
bridge over the canal. 

"You cannot now possibly go in the heat of the day 
to Memphis," said he, kindly. "I will take care that 
you shall reach the city gate without fatigue. Lachares !" 
he cried aloud, turning toward the pyramidal tower at 
the entrance of the garden, in which was a porter's 
lodge.* 

The porter made his appearance. The young man 
whispered to him some words in his ear; he hurried 
quickly to the stables and wagon-house which w T e had 
just left. I hoped to see immediately again the beauti- 
ful team which had brought us to the villa, but I was 
mistaken. 

After a few minutes, four men hastened in with a 
sedan, which they respectfully set down before their 
master. The sedan, formed of the finest wood, in which 
flowers were most artistically carved, was so long that a 
large man could sit in it perfectly well with his feet 
outstretched. It was open above, but richly cushioned, 
and promised a most agreeable mid-day repose. We 
mounted into it, and I found the interior space so wide 
that, without being crowded, I could take Horus along- 
side of me. As soon as we had sat down a cover was 
brought on over the back supports, which protected us 
from the sun's rays. Once again I rendered my thanks 

* Wilk. II. PL 8. 
10 



110 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

to my young host. Four slaves raised the four poles of 
the sedan on their shoulders, and in a moment appeared 
an overseer, who, with his upraised staff driving on the 
bearers like beasts, accompanied us on foot.* 

Thus we left the hospitable villa, and, gently balanced, 
both of us sank into a refreshing mid-day slumber. We 
did not wake till the sedan was let down, and we found 
ourselves at the gate. Quickly we sprang out, and 
thanked the overseer for the easy and rapid convey- 
ance. That we charged him also with many thanks 
to the young master was a matter of course, and hardly 
needs mention. 

As I leaped out of the sedan I met with an unlucky 
mishap. One of the straps of my sandal burst off from 
the sole, the knots loosed, and the sandal fell from my 
foot. I sorrowfully pointed out to my little conductor 
the misfortune. He laughed heartily. * 

" What is now to be done?" I asked, much troubled. 
" I cannot go into the great capital with a shoe on one 
foot only and the other in my hand!" 

" Two stitches will remedy it," answered he, still 
laughing, and enjoying my perplexity. 

"Yes, two stitches •*' I said, pitifully; "but where is 
our thread and needle?" 

" Do you think there is no shoemaker in Memphis ? 
Close here by the gate I will take you to a shop where, 
for a pleasant word, the strap will be fastened again. 
Come, follow me!" 

In fact, inside of the city, close to the gate through which 

we entered, there were many low^ houses, which appeared 

to belong to mechanics, whence the sound of hammers, 

saws and other tools broke forth. Over the door stood, 

* Wilk. II. 208. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. Ill 

as upon our signs, the name and business of the occu- 
pant. There were cabinetmakers, turners, potters, shoe- 
makers, tailors, weavers and many others. We entered 
into a shoemaker's shop, and, I must confess, it was with 
a great effort I could help laughing outright. On a low 
three-legged stool sat the master, holding a sandal w r ith 
both hands, and drawing a thin strap, which he had 
thrust through a hole on its side, with his teeth. His 
face presented such a strange expression that the desire 
to laugh, which was ready to overcome me, might well be 
excused. A second shoemaker, who sat on a similar 
stool close to the first, was busied with an awl in boring 
the necessary holes on the tw^o sides of the sole. Other 
tools, as, for example, large needles, long and short, 
straight and crooked awls, knives, wooden and iron 
hammers and things of this sort, as well as pieces of 
leather not used, lay about on the floor. Finished san- 
dals, awaiting customers, hung around on the walls.* We 
approached, and Horus told one of them of my mishap. 
He was ready in a moment, took his needle, threaded it 
in the large eye without the least difficulty, and in two 
minutes the work was done. Horus helped me ; the sole 
was again strapped to my foot, and we left the shop to 
walk on further. 

" Where now?" asked Horus. 

" Would it be possible now to pay a visit to Apis ?" 

" Certainly; and at the same time you will have an 
opportunity to get acquainted with the famous temple of 
Ptah. So let us go forward !" 

We walked through several narrow streets, lined with 
rows of low houses built of brick, behind which rose loftily 
the proud temple, and, in a quarter of an hour — during 
* Wilk. TIT. 100. 



112 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

which I noticed nothing besides here and there business 
people passing by, and a troop of soldiers who marched in 
front of the gate with a drummer and fifer — we reached 
an open square that w T as about ten or twelve stadia, or a 
quarter of a German mile [three quarters of an English 
mile] in circuit. In the midst of this place the vast, old 
and venerable temple upreared itself with its countless 
pillared passages and adjoining buildings. The whole 
might have been called a priestly city, for here dwelt, 
lived, and carried on its operations, one of the most 
famous colleges of priests, from which every year ten 
judges were chosen for the highest courts ; and its pro- 
phets, hierogrammats, horoscopes and other classes of 
priests were celebrated in all times for their learning. 
Here abode the successors of those priests and magicians 
who had formerly contended in miracles with Moses, 
and to their shame had been overcome by the power of 
the one true God. 

The temple proper, which lay in the midst of many 
other buildings, was surrounded on every one of the four 
points of the heavens by lofty colonnades, or fore-courts, 
resting on pillars, called propylse, to which there was 
an ascent by stone steps. Four kings have been par- 
ticularly named by the old historians as those who 
erected these great structures and enlarged the temple 
and beautified it. Outside of the temple proper were 
other large buildings, partly containing the dwellings of 
the dhTerent classes of the priests, partly the library, 
the court of Apis and the astronomical observatory, 
&c. We hastened on directly, without stopping, through 
these immense masses of stone, to reach the temple 
proper. We mounted the steps leading to the propyls 
on the east side ; close to these pillared halls there ad- 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 113 

joined a long gallery, or alley, which was formed of 
sphinxes, at least forty in a row. The sphinxes stand- 
ing here were not composed, as those well-known ones, 
of lion's bodies and human faces, but, instead of these 
latter, had the heads of rams, and symbolically desig- 
nated the power and majesty of the god here throned 
and dwelling. At the end of this gallery I looked at 
the one of the four principal gates which led to the 
temple : it was very high and broad, in the form of a 
pyramid, cut off nearly in the middle, built of red, 
polished granite, and all over on its face adorned with 
hieroglyphic inscriptions and on the sides with colossal 
bas-reliefs, wdiich represented the worship of the god, 
the offering of sacrifices and festal processions. When 
we had entered through this gate we came to the proper 
court of the temple, which was copied in the porch of 
the later Jewish temple. Here stood the six famous, 
lofty stone statues of Sesostris, his wife and his four 
children, which this king caused to be erected after his 
return from his victorious warlike expeditions.* Two 
obelisks, also, hewn w r holly out of granite, at least sixty 
feet high, covered with hieroglyphics, here raised their 
tapering points toward the heavens, and seemed as if 
touching the clouds. Opposite the gate through which 
we entered was the passage into the inside of the tem- 
ple proper, the holy place, where the worshiping people 
were wont to assemble, and, under the guidance of the 
priests, pray, bring their gifts and offer sacrifices. This 
entrance had hung before it a richly-wrought curtain, 
in various colors. We raised it and found the door be- 
hind it, consisting of two folding leaves, closed ; Horus 
knocked hard on it, and three heavy strokes resounded 

* Herod. II. 110. Diod. I. 57. 
10* 



114 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

in the inside of the temple, and a sacred shudder ran 
through my frame. 

"Who is there ?" a voice sounded from within. 

" Two pious persons who want to offer prayer to the 
Almighty God Ptah, the great architect of the world/' 
replied Horus, instead of myself, who was overcome by 
a solemn dread. 

Some moments after the folding-doors opened as of 
themselves, and a priest appeared in his long white dress 
rolling down on the marble threshold. We entered ; the 
door closed again, and the priest disappeared into a side- 
chamber, leaving us to our thoughts and meditations. 
This interior square space of the holy place of the 
temple rested on a hundred pillars, and in the midst of 
the great square there was a colossal sitting-image of the 
god Ptah, on a high pedestal, which was covered around 
with hieroglyphics. Here we stood for a long time and 
contemplated the rigid, motionless face of the Deity. 
"Is it possible," I thought to myself, " that a people so 
full of genius, knowledge and invention, as the Egyp- 
tians, can adore such a dead idol and expect help from 
him?" Then my eye fell upon an inscription which 
required of the worshiper faith in the Deity, faith in 
virtue, faith in immortality ; and the simple words with 
which this doctrine was preached in a few lines of hiero- 
glyphics reconciled me again to the stark, cold look of 
the image of the god. I recognized the power and 
nearness of a Deity. Where such holy doctrines were 
given, and surely lived in every heart and bore good 
fruits, there the divine spirit could not be far off. 

A new, costly, celestial-blue curtain, set with stars, 
separated the temple from the most holy place, the 
shrine., or adytum, in which stood, as I had conjectured, 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 115 

from the inscription of Rosetta, the golden images and 
little chapels of the divinity, and in which they were 
dressed by the Hieroskolists before the processions,* 
and in which, at a later period, also, Antiochus Epi- 
phanes dedicated a little chapel and was honored as a 
god. A curiosity seized me to cast, also, behind this 
curtain a searching look ; but little Horus held me back. 
" Entrance there," said he, "is only allowed to those 
consecrated to the god. Do you wish to be admitted 
into the Priest-caste ? Recollect what you have read 
of Pythagoras ; to what examinations, what privations, 
and what cruel tortures he had to subject himself. And 
what else but curiosity impels you to it ; and the vulgar 
curious can never see the light !" 

I wavered between thirst of knowing and fear. I 
wished and longed for the re-appearance of the priest, 
in order to read in his eyes whether I could trust myself 
to him. But Horus hastened to add, "And what would 
you learn of our priests ? Their wisdom has long ago 
gone out into the world, and has shaken into ruins 
cities, states and kingdoms. What our priests teach, 
hundreds of philosophers have since taught and copied. 
Yes ; there yet are, in the time in which you live, priests 
of Ptah in the world ; go and seek them. I shall not 
betray their secrets." 

As there was nothing more to see, and yet fur- 
ther the stillness which reigned around us began to 
be awful to me, I begged Horus to return with me and 
conduct me to more lively scenes. But since the door of 
the Holy place, as I stated, had closed behind us, I was 
beginning to fear we should have to await the return of 
the priest, and must request him to open the passage 
* Plutarch de Tside, 866. 



116 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 






out. Horus, however, appeared to know the custom 
here ; he stepped to the door and pressed with his foot 
on a knob that, hardly perceptible, was on the threshold ; 
immediately the door sprang open, and we returned 
through it into the fore-court. By the same way through 
the gallery and the propyls we left the lofty building, 
and then turned around to the right, to the court of Apis, 
which was built on the south side of the temple. It was 
surrounded with pillared halls, inclosed by thick stone 
walls, and the floor was laid with marble plates. 

Here reigned the greatest, an almost regal luxury, 
and a fairy-like splendor in all respects. The keeper 
of Apis, who stood at the door and looked curiously at 
the new-comers, allowed us readily to enter, after Horus 
had declared that we wished to consult Apis,( 13 ) and had 
given a yet stronger emphasis to our request by a rich 
present of gold for the divine bullock, which, of course, 
w r ent into the keeper's pocket. I gazed around within as- 
tonished and wandering. Was this a chamber for Apis, 
or for a most luxurious Egyptian queen ? The court was 
divided into two rooms, both of which were destined for 
the bullock. In the first into which we entered, on the 
left was a couch furnished with swelling cushions and 
costly carpets and covers ; on a table at the right side 
stood fragrant ointments ; near by was a basin, of ala- 
baster, richly ornamented with gold, where, as Horus told 
me, Apis was every day bathed and anointed by the 
priests. In the corner stood a vessel of coals into which 
incense was cast at short intervals by them, and from 
which arose the sweetest odors, almost stupefying me. 
On a second table stood, in golden vessels, the most 
costly food with which he was accustomed to be fed.* 
* Diod. I. 8-1. 



THREE DAYS IK MEMPHIS. 117 

As I was about to enter the second adjoining cham- 
ber, Apis appeared at the gate, which led from one to 
the other. In fact, he was a royal divine animal ; more 
'majestic than I had yet seen. Some of the signs known 
to me from the old writers immediately caught my eye : 
he was black, had a square white spot on his forehead, 
and a picture of the moon on the increase on the right 
side.* But when iElian gives twenty-nine such marks, 
a great part of them must have existed in the imagin- 
ative power of the priests ; and a bullock could never, 
but with the greatest difficulty, be found which at the same 
time possessed them all. The number of twenty-nine 
signs appears to refer to the twenty-nine days of the 
synodic month, since Apis is to be regarded as a symbol 
of the Nile and the month, and, according to Plutarch, 
must likewise have been begotten by a moon-beam. f 
As Horus told me, near to the two courts lay a third, 
in which the mother of Apis is fed during her life ; and 
a fourth, with a whole harem of cows for his choice.J 

"Does Apis always remain shut up here?" I softly 
inquired of Horus. 

"Almost always," he replied. " Only on special fes- 
tive and extraordinary occasions he is carried out, as all 
the images of the gods are, through the city, and then 
surrounded by soldiers, who are appointed to keep off 
the curious people from crowding on him. Then chil- 
dren go before him who sing hymns to his praise." 

The keeper of Apis constantly stood before the door, 
eagerly listening to what we wished to ask of Apis. A 
new present and the assurance that we wished to com- 

* Pliny, Nat. Hist. VIII 46. 

f Plutarch Symp. VIII. 1, de Is. c. 53. Herod. III. 28. 

J iElian de Natura Animal, XI. 10. 



118 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

municate alone with the oracle induced him to walk out 
into the fore-court. Apis came a step nearer, bellowing 
aloud, and then remained standing, looking bold and 
threatening with his unintellectual eyes. I overcame 
my fear, and asked aloud : — 

" Sacred Apis, earthly body of Osiris, reveal to me 
the truth. When, sometime hereafter, your temple is 
fallen into ruins ; when your people have died off, and 
have taken away their knowledge of the language and 
writing with them into the tomb, will there, then, in 
after times, be a man who can inspire a new life into 
your ruins, penetrate your spirit and decipher your 
written monuments ?" 

Hardly had I spoken these words than I caught some 
dainties from the golden vessel and offered them to Apis. 
He turned off one side, displeased. 

"You lie," I added. "Think of Champollion, and 
many other men, whom the after-world will name and 
praise ; will no one of them tread in the footsteps of the 
Egyptian priests?" 

Apis still had no appetite, and evidently shook his 
head as if offended. 

"And yet, once more," I added, "will I ask. Look 
at me ! Shall I find no favor in your eyes ? Shall I 
strive for my hitherto pursued object? Shall I here- 
after find that which is correct? Answer, Apis !" and I 
held out anew to him his food. 

He appeared to reflect for a long, time ; but he turned 
not away from me, and his notice being arrested by my 
loud and raised voice, he looked steadily at me. Finally 
he stretched his head forward, took the food from my 
hand, then slowly turned about and with a solemn and 
serious step went back into the second room. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 119 

" You see," said Horus, — "only do not lose courage, 
— the bold may hope ; he who seeks will find." 

Smiling and incredulous, I turned back to the en- 
trance. Many others yet stood before the gate who 
also wished to inquire of Apis, but who were let in only 
one at a time by the keeper. There were soldiers who 
had before them a dangerous undertaking ; merchants 
who were about to ascend the Nile into the interior of 
the country with their wares ; sick persons who had 
long suffered with painful diseases ; men and women 
whom one and another misfortune crushed to the earth, 
— all would obtain from Apis consolation and hope, or 
misery and despair. Oh, the foolish multitude ! Many 
to-day will surely return home comfortless ; for Apis 
appears to me wholly satiated for hours to come. 

When we went out we were immediately surrounded 
on all sides. "Is Apis in a favorable mood? Has he 
eaten ?" These questions resounded from at least twenty 
tongues. I gave no answer ; the superstition of the 
multitude had in it something frightful for me, — hum- 
bling to the dignity of man. I pressed through the 
crowds so quickly that Horus could hardly follow me, 
and did not rest till I again stood at the eastern portal 
of the main temple. 

Here a wondrous spectacle presented itself. On the 
lowest step leading up to the propyls, surrounded by a 
multitude of people, stood one of those enthusiasts be- 
longing to the priest-class, which Egypt, ever from the 
earliest down to modern times, has hidden in her bo- 
som.* He was a serpent-charmer — almost naked, ex- 
cept a little apron about his hips — who gestured convul- 

* JElian Hist. Animal, XVII. 5. Quatremere Memoires sur l'Egypte, 
T. I. p. 202, ff. 



120 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

sively like a maniac, so that the foam and slaver came 
out of his mouth. He held in his hands three serpents 
universally dreaded by the people as venomous, and 
which coiled themselves around his body and to whose 
bite he appeared to expose himself without harm. He 
imitated most deceptively the hiss of the serpent, and 
thus, as well as by his wonderful and magical practices, 
excited so powerful an influence on the animals that in 
a moment they became obedient to his will and com- 
mand. While the other two wound themselves round 
his whole body, he opened the mouth of the third one, 
spit in his throat, laid his hand imperatively on his 
head, and immediately it became stiff and motionless as 
a stick, letting itself be taken hold of and handled as if 
it were so. Every eye hung on this wonder, till the 
multitude passed from mute astonishment to loud ad- 
miration and wild shouts of applause. After some 
minutes the charmer caught the serpent' by the tail, 
then rolled it between his hands, and it was as lively 
again and capable of motion as before.* 

" These are the wise men," said Horus, "who first 
were set up to oppose Moses. But they were entirely 
conquered by a miracle which is, even to this day, in- 
conceivable to me. Moses' rod swallowed up the rods 
into which they had changed the serpents ; and even in 
the very art of which Egyptian wise men especially 
boast, by which, as you see, they enchain the people 
and carry them away to blind wonder and enthusiasm, 
Moses was superior to them, and armed with a higher, 
unsearchable power." 

I drew Horus along with me. The sight of the brown, 
savage-looking man, covered with foam and blood; the 
* Description de Egypt, T. xxiv. p. 82, ff. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 121 

glittering, hissing serpents ; the wild shouts of the 
people, — all these filled me with fear and horror. We 
went along to the eastern propylae until we bent round 
to the left and found ourselves on the north side of the 
temple. Here were many side-buildings, constructed, 
like the temple, entirely of stone, dwellings of the 
priests, astronomical observatories, and, finally, the 
library belonging to the priests. The last especially 
arrested my notice and excited my curiosity, and so I 
begged Horus to let me have a look into it. Imme- 
diately he declared his readiness, and after we had 
passed the houses where, in single cells, the priests were 
busied with the wisdom, and restlessly at work for the 
fame of their country and their protector Thoth, we* en- 
tered a high gate, and found ourselves in a large square 
building that embraced a main saloon and some small 
adjoining rooms. 

When we entered the great library-hall my first look 
fell upon a large statue of the god Thoth, the inventor 
and guardian of all the sciences and arts, and especially 
the art of writing, which statue was set up on the right 
of the door, and bore the inscription — " Thoth, the 
scribe, the Lord of Hermopolis, (Egyptian Schmun.)"* 
He was represented with the head of an Ibis, and with 
writing materials in his hand, by which marks he may 
easily be distinguished in almost all the pictures. Next 
I turned my attention to the opposite wall, which was 
occupied by a large painting. On drawing near I per- 
ceived the astronomical zodiac with its twelve houses, 
six and thirty decans and three hundred and sixty 
degrees ; with every decan in every degree stood the 
figure and name of the deity which, according to astro- 

* Wilk. Suppl. plate 45, and Diod. I. 49. 
11 



122 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

logical determinations, was regarded as ruling in it. 
The seven planetary divinities, also, had received their 
place where they stood at a certain hour, probably at 
the hour of birth, of the founder of the building. One 
look at this picture was sufficient to establish and con- 
firm the idea I had already formed of the astronomical 
knowledge and astrological reveries of the old Egyp- 
tians. The three other walls, also, were filled all over 
with hieroglyphical incriptions that referred partly to 
the god Thoth himself and partly to the sciences, and 
celebrated their use ; as also in the same manner was 
the famous library in the temple of Thebes most fitly 
called "a house for the cure of the soul." As to the 
book-rolls themselves, they lay partly in open reposi- 
tories standing against the walls, partly in chests or 
boxes, which were very similar to those heretofore de- 
scribed. Six or seven scribes sat around in the hall 
and were busily copying different valuable manuscripts. 
The librarian, who in Egyptian is called "the governor 
of books," walked back and forth, looking at the rolls; 
he was an old priest, who already had long held this 
office, and appeared to have grown gray in it. At our 
request he willingly drew out sometimes one roll and 
sometimes another, in order to unroll it to our aston- 
ished eyes, and added short observations respecting its 
contents. The books were almost all written in hierogly- 
phic characters, only a few in the hieratic current style, 
not one in the demotic mode ; as this method first came 
into use at a later day, and the middle kind formed the 
transition from the sacred to the demotic method of 
writing. Though now, as every one knows, the whole 
Egyptian literature was a work of the priests, and at 
that time, at least, bore a more or less religious charac- 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 123 

ter, yet there was already in the library, as to its pre- 
vailing contents, it might be said, an arrangement in 
accordance with the departments of science, just as 
every particular branch of the wisdom of the priests 
was assigned to a special priestly-class. In one reposi- 
tory lay the theological, in another the more juridical, 
in a third the medical, and in yet another, finally, the 
astronomical, historical and other book-rolls. 

The first which the librarian drew out and showed us 
were ten in number ; the so-called sacred books of the 
prophets, which treated of the laws relating to the wor- 
ship of the gods and the doctrines of the divinities. 
Every one of them was at least thirty feet long, divided 
into large sections and subdivisions, and with respect to 
every one of these subdivisions the laity could easily 
conjecture the contents by vignette-titles. There were 
represented in these vignette-titles sacrificial solemni- 
ties, processions, various figures of the gods, with all 
their attributes, and the pictures of the sacred animals. 
Ten other books, likewise shown us, were on liturgical 
subjects, and contained prescriptions for worship ; two 
others, hymns and prayers, which the Hieroskolists and 
singers had particularly imprinted for themselves. The 
first glance convinced me that these latter, if they were 
not rhythmical and measured in our sense, yet had a 
poetic cast, and were destined to be sung off according 
to certain regular melodies. The songs were all divided 
into a number of strophes, some into twenty and more, 
of equal length, which always begun and ended with 
the same words. There were the twenty-two religious 
books, in a closer sense of the term ; to them were 
added fourteen others, which, too, were regarded as 
sacred, because they treated of the sacred writing in all 



124 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

the relations of hieroglyphics, art of drawing, of geo- 
metrical representation, cosmography, geography, topo- 
graphy, &e. I would gladly have more accurately 
studied these books, but the time was too short 
and the books too long; and the sacred scribes only 
could perfectly expound them, who on their part in- 
structed the wealthy young Egyptians in the outlines of 
the art of sacred writing. I saw merely, by a hasty 
glance at the titles, that they were thrice inscribed 
to the great Thoth, the Hermes Trismegistus of the 
Greeks.* 

The juridical literature was of the least extent. Its 
basis served eight book-rolls, in which the collective 
laws of the land were distinguished. f They contained 
the criminal laws, the laws as to marriage, those as to 
war, and the laws of trade, &c. These were all short 
and compact, mentioning only the crime and the pun- 
ishment attached to it from the earliest times. An 
innumerable multitude of other rolls contained the 
papers of the different trials brought down even to the 
then present day, such as in modern times would hardly 
find place in a library ; the documents of accusation or 
of defence, and the judgments of the courts. The six 
medical books, too, which, as is well known, were borne 
in the processions by the so-called Pastophori, I had laid 
before me. The first of them treated of the organism 
of the body ; all its single parts were delineated in rough 
sketches, and described as accurately as possible ; and, 
so far as I could judge, there was more attention be- 
stowed on the outer than the inner parts. The second 

* Clem. V. Alex. Strom. V. p. 260, and Bunsen iEgyptens Stelle, etc. 
Bd. I. p. 34. 
f Diod. I. 75. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 125 

treated of diseases, a third of cures, the others of sur- 
gical instruments, &c. But particularly interesting to 
"me was a little book which the " governor of the books" 
brought out only after many requests by my little con- 
ductor. It was the so-called " Holy Ambres."* It con- 
tained a short account of all the symptoms of disease 
and the judgment every time made, whether or not the 
cure was possible, so that the prophets could decide re- 
specting the life or death of patients seeking counsel of 
them. The principal Egyptian diseases, such as plagues, 
leprosy, inflammations of the eye, and others, were here 
so accurately described in their particular appearance 
that I was convinced Moses drew from it his medical 
wisdom which we find laid down in his books. 

The number of astronomical and astrological books 
was large ; and especially important appeared to me an 
astrological work, which I took into my hand, and of 
which the name of Petosiris was given in the superscrip- 
tion as its author. f It contained the secret science of the 
effects of the planets, and the influences which they ex- 
ert on the destiny of a new-born child in the hour of his 
birth, according as they stand in this or that house or 
decan. Innumerable examples were annexed as an ap- 
pendix ; from Menes even to the time of the Eighteenth 
Dynasty, the destinies of the most important kings and 
state-officers were collected together with the constella- 
tions of their natal hours. The astronomy was also ex- 
pressed in other books with a surprising accuracy for 
that period. The place of the fixed stars and the con- 
stellations, the planets, the division of the sun's path, 
the conjunctions and phases of the sun and moon, as 
well as the rise and setting of stars, the reckoning of 

* Horap. Hieroglyph. I. 38. f Jul. Firinicus, L. IV. c. 10. 

11* 



126 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

time, the whole calendar, and some astronomical periods 
— the Apis periods, the Phoenix periods, and the Sothis 
periods, or cycles — were given in them most definitely. 

On papyrus-rolls of larger size were prepared maps 
of the whole country and its particular portions, as well 
as accurate plans of surveys of the landed property be- 
longing to the State and temple. Such a map which I un- 
rolled contained a ground-plot of a catacomb at Thebes ; 
the particular sepulchral chambers were clearly marked 
out, and in every such chamber the existing tablets were 
noticed, how long, how broad and high, even to the 
inch, by whom and at what time they were erected, &c. 
Another map represented the whole of Egypt, with its 
twelve provinces and thirty-six nomes, from the coast of 
the Mediterranean Sea to Suan, or Syene ; and I saw 
that the north coast of Egypt must formerly have had 
a different appearance from the present one. In the 
former marshy regions which were inhabited by tribes 
carrying on the raising of cattle, if compared with re- 
cent maps, entire lakes have arisen, while former lakes, 
on the contrary, have been wholly filled up by sand. 
So, too, the old Lake of Sirbonis, which, in the delinea- 
tion lying before me was situated on the east side of 
Egypt, has now wholly disappeared; while, on the con- 
trary, the old Lake of Tanis, which the Arabians now 
call Birk-Menzaleh, and in which the Pelusian, Tanitic, 
and Mendesian arms of the Nile emptied themselves, 
have become so enlarged in the course of centuries that 
it now almost embraces a third of the whole north coast ; 
and cities which once lay on the main-land, as, for ex- 
ample, Pelusium, now are entirely covered by water. 

The librarian was tired of unrolling and rolling up so 
many books, as well as we with looking at so many inte- 



THREE DATS IN MEMPHIS. 127 

resting objects ; the time was already far advanced, and 
the priests appeared to wish to withdraw into their abodes. 

"I could show you yet many other books on import- 
ant subjects," said the old man, as he concluded his ex- 
planations, "but they present the same outward appear- 
ance. The historical rolls and lists of kings, preserved 
in the different unopened chests, are of weighty im- 
portance. "* 

"Let us go," whispered Horus to me. "The his- 
torical works are already known to you. The lists of 
Dynasties, the descriptions of the warlike deeds of Sesos- 
tris, Amasis, the different Ramses and others are there, 
which Manetho, Herodotus and Diodorus have used, or 
from which they at least have caused the most essential 
parts to be communicated to them by the priests. Be- 
sides, the sun is sinking lower down to the horizon, and 
before we wander into new scenes I need a moment's 
repose." 

We left the library, which was immediately closed be- 
hind us. The librarian and the scribes went to their 
cells after having completed their work, to take their 
meal. 

"What industry! what learning!" cried I, astonished, 
as soon as we again stood before the temple, in the open 
air. " Your priests do, in truth, deserve the fame and 
veneration which all antiquity has paid them. They 
must be the noblest of men ; they who labor restlessly in 
the cultivation of the sciences without laying claim to 
the least reward ; for I have never yet heard that the 
name of a priest has been celebrated by history, though 
they are those who deserve the highest fame and thanks 
of posterity. Unselfish, they toil on only for one aim, 
* Diod. I. 90. 



128 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

the glorifying of the protecting god Thoth, for the en- 
nobling of mankind/' 

"You think so?" said Horns, with a bitter smile. 
"As to individuals, you may be right; but most of 
the priests are like all men ; behind the temple walls 
many a crime is hidden. The prophet of this temple 
himself, many years ago, committed a crime which has 
never come to light, but so much the more does his con- 
science pain and torture him. Look up now to that 
window in the dark, mysterious building ; there he lives, 
his crime unpunished, for the arm of earthly justice 
penetrates not into the sacred inclosure where the priests 
dwell." 

" Oh tell me about it !" cried I, full of curiosity. 

We seated ourselves on the steps of the propyls, and 
Horus began : — 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE TALE. 



"About fifty years ago Egypt was the theatre of great 
conflicts and movements. At that period the country 
had not the good fortune to be united under one scepter ; 
here and there existed in particular provinces different 
dynasties, who governed not by powerful kings, but by 
weak rulers, and, indeed, were swayed by some import- 
ant colleges of priests. Thus ruled over Memphis and 
its weak king a priest who bore the name of Sesom, i.e. 
Son of Hercules. He it is of whom I am about to tell 
you ; he who now, almost a hundred years old, is hasten- 
ing to meet his death ; but who at that time was in the 
most vigorous years of manhood, which the astrologers 
had placed under the protection of the powerful and 
mighty Planet-god Mars.( 14 ) And, in fact, conflicts, 
cunning murder and misdeeds of all kinds marked the 
years of his life. 

"As has often been the case in the history of Egypt, 
so about this time broke forth the morning-dawn of a 
freer development. A bold king united all their little 
kingdoms into one whole ; his strong arm ruled the 
whole land from Memphis even to Syene, and the power 
of the priests, which had so joyously forged fetters for 
the country and its kings, was destroyed by one mighty 
and powerful arm, and driven back into the walls of the 

129 



130 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

temple. Could the priestly order allow this to take 
place quietly? Could they let their authority and 
power, which they had possessed for years, slip from 
their hands without a blow of the sword ? Could they see 
their crafty web torn asunder without an attempt to join 
again the broken threads to each other ? No ! A strug- 
gle; a fearful contest of the Priesthood against the 
Sovereignty must be ventured on : not an open, honor- 
able fight, in which the priests, without doubt, Avould be 
worsted under such a king, but a secret, crafty con- 
spiracy, of which no one knew, that no one dreamed of, 
whose horrible threads should be lost in the most holy 
sanctuary of- the temple and never come to public view. 
The high-priest and prophet Sesom was, as you will see, 
the soul of the whole. The king had a daughter, a lovely, 
tender child, hardly seventeen years old, named Athyr- 
tis, — not that well-known daughter of Sesostris, but like 
her in wisdom, eager desire of knowledge, and prophetic 
gifts. The child had already gladly stayed within the 
temple walls, listened to the prayers of the priests, and 
admired the splendor of the sacrifices and the priest- 
hood ; and, indeed, it might be said, she lived no earthly, 
but only a heavenly life, in the silent converse with 
Ammon, Osiris, Isis and other deities, who she believed 
hovered over and protected her. Thus she stood, six- 
teen years old, when her father mounted the throne, in 
the calling of a holy, consecrated prophetess. 

" Her way led her often to the temple of Ptah. At- 
tended by only two trusty handmaids, she walked 
silently through the streets of Memphis, deep-veiled, 
mixed herself among the worshiping people, and fre- 
quently lingered a longer time than other worshipers 
of the Deity, in the vestibule, praying and thirsting for 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 131 

higher wisdom. Often believing herself alone she 
clasped with beautiful arms the image of the God, 
lifted her protecting veil, and gazed with her black, 
ardent eyes up into the face of the Exalted one. She 
also frequently gazed with a silent sigh on the curtain 
which separated her from the most Holy place, and 
which was opened only for the initiated. Thus Sesom 
saw her ; frequently hid behind a pillar, he listened to 
the inmost thoughts of the princess, which she uttered 
aloud in her prayers ; he saw her developing herself 
every month more majestic and beautiful, and soon only 
two emotions swayed his unholy bosom : Love and Re- 
venge ; love to the most beautiful woman that he had 
ever seen, and revenge against the king, whom he hoped 
to reach through the daughter. She should be an in- 
strument to break the power of the king. 

" I must not make my story too long. A year passed, 
during which the prophet came to meet the wishes of 
the maiden. Hypocritically he had draw T n her to him- 
self, and instructed her in many secrets of the divinity. 
She was initiated into the first degree of the mysteries, 
and, unconscious and dreaming of nothing evil, had 
fallen more and more into the power of the priest. 
Soon she gazed behind the veil, and was admitted into 
the most Holy place. It was the twelfth day of the 
month Mesori ; the sun had sent a burning glow over 
the day, and as he declined toward his setting hour the 
sultry air yet retained all the inhabitants in their houses. 
The streets of Memphis were desolated and empty. 
Then a maiden, alone, without any attendant, covered 
with an impenetrable veil, stole out of the women's 
chambers of the royal palace ; silent as a shadow she 
glided through the portal, passed the tired watchmen, 



132 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 



and, ever looking anxiously about her, struck into a path 
toward the temple. Upon the great steps on which we 
are here sitting she made a halt to catch her breath ; 
trembling and excited she uttered fervent prayers; the 
veil fell from her shoulders, and as she stood there in 
her beauty and majesty one might have thought her to 
be Isis incarnate. But there was no one saw her ; only 
a fresh, evening breeze played with her locks ; only the 
departing sun once looked into her eye and disappeared 
behind the chain of western mountains which there 
bounds the horizon. 

" When she had so stood for about a quarter of an hour 
and prayed, she suddenly came out of her deep thoughts, 
threw her thick veil anew over her beautiful face, mounted 
w T ith firm foot the steps through the vestibule and to the 
gate of the inner temple. Once she seemed to delay at 
the door, but it was a few moments only; then, with 
strong hand, laid hold of the knocker; three heavy 
strokes resounded in the inside of the temple and sent 
a holy shuddering through the otherwise courageous and 
composed, yet at this moment timid, maiden. But in a 
few minutes the door opened, and Athyrtis, for it was 
she, entered; the prophet, in his long, white, flowing 
robe, received her upon the marble threshold. 

" With seriousness and dignity he caught hold of the 
trembling hand of the king's virgin daughter ; slowly 
and solemnly she walked through the temple, and in a 
few moments stood before the curtain. The priest lifted 
it up, and she entered into the most Holy place. A glare 
of light, which streamed forth for a moment from behind 
the curtain and illuminated the temple, vanished as 
quickly again. In the temple all was desolate and 
empty. What they two uttered there, what the priest 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 133 

taught her, what the princess learned, no one knows. 
You who already, before you found me, have cast a look 
into the essence of our religion and the mysteries of our 
priests, can conjecture it. 

" Sesom let her cast one glance into the mysteries of 
the temple and into his heart glowing with love. The 
gods to whom she had looked and prayed so sincerely, 
in whom she had trusted with such unshaken faith, were 
now before her eyes, stripped of their decorations ; they 
were changed from living persons, beaming with dignity, 
into simple stars, which, according to eternal laws, wan- 
der through the heavens ; the myths, which attracted 
and inspired the laity, were pointed out to her in their 
astrological sense, and sunk down to legends invented 
by the priests ; the wonders of the temple, which she 
had hitherto admired and that had astonished her, were 
explained to her, and became for her tricks and decep- 
tions of the ambitious priestood deserving contempt; it 
was with her as with a child who had gazed with amaze- 
ment and awe of belief on the arts of a juggler, and 
who is suddenly pitilessly dragged upon the scene to 
look through the instruments of the enchanter's craft. 
She had lost the most beautiful ornament and mightiest 
stay of the woman : devoted faith in the divinity and 
its miracles. She was morally annihilated. 

" Soon all was alive in the temple. The Neokori, or 
ministers of the temple appeared, to purify the holy room 
and decorate it for the next day, which was a festival- 
day. The necessary sacrificial furniture was brought in, 
also the various little statues of the gods, clad in costly 
robes and placed in a circle. 

" Suddenly resounded behind the curtain a long and 
piercing cry. Then all was again still. 

12 



134 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

" A servant, moved with curiosity, stepped to one side 
of the curtain and threw a glance into the most Holy 
place. Athyrtis lay in a swoon, and without motion, 
in the arms of the priest. 



"When she awaked she lay gently reposing on a soft 
couch in an adjoining hall of the temple, whither the 
priest had caused her to be home. A sweet strain of 
music recalled her to life ; perfumes breathed all around 
her, and a table set with excellent, delicious food and 
costly wines invited her to taste. Sesom stood on one 
side watching every motion of hers, and when the first 
signs of life returned, when she opened her eyes and 
mechanically laid her hand on her burning brow, then a 
new unholy fire burned in his eyes ; it was a lightning 
flash, a sign of wild triumph. The fright, confusion 
and horror which had a short time before possessed the 
young maiden, all which she had experienced, was so 
mighty in its effect that she could only with difficulty, 
and gradually, recall to her mind what had transpired. 
First came clearly before her soul the fervent prayers 
which she had sent up to the throne of the divinity; 
but, while slowly and by degrees her powers and recol- 
lections returned, she suddenly heard in her ears the 
unholy words of the priest which had robbed her of her 
senses. Affrighted anew she wished to raise herself, 
but her feeble limbs refused their office, and she sunk 
back exhausted upon her pillow, when suddenly a minis- 
ter of the temple, quickly changed into a cup-bearer, 
stood beside her with the frightful skeleton upon his 
arm, and the horrible words upon his lips : i Look on 
this, eat and drink, for to-morrow thou mayest be dead 
and like to it !' 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 135 

" Athyrtis, who felt pressed down by an unaccountable 
weakness and exhaustion, and saw the necessity of 
gathering all her energy and power, cast a look upon 
the richly-laden table, and almost involuntarily stretched 
forth her hand for the cup of sparkling wine, which the 
priest coming forward held out to her. But she stopped 
before she touched it to her lips. Was she afraid of be- 
trayal, of a cunningly-prepared enchantment ? Sesom 
anticipated her, again took the cup which she already 
held, half emptied it, and gave it back to her again, 
with the words, " Fear not, beautiful daughter of the 
most powerful king, neither poison nor enchanting 
draught will be offered to you by me ; drink, the body 
needs strength and invigoration for the new doctrines 
which you must receive." 

" She drank ; and while the fiery wine ran through her 
veins her life-spirits were once more aroused, and new 
courage and firm self-confidence returned to her. She 
proudly raised herself up. 

" ' Let me,' said she boldly and firmly, ' return to the 
world, where true love and piety dwell. I scorn you and 
your whole treacherous system of doctrine. You shall 
not rob me of my god who dwells in my bosom, who 
rewards, punishes and judges me, who promises me 
blessedness and immortality.' 

"'Athyrtis,' said the priest, breaking in upon her 
words with a Avondrously deep emotion, ' you have re- 
ceived the holy doctrines of the priests, and your con- 
science binds you to an eternal silence. Now examine 
yourself and see whether you have courage to go out 
and betray our secrets ; two enemies stand opposed to 
you, both alike mighty, alike to be dreaded : the people, 
who will not believe you, and will condemn you as a 



130 TIIKEE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

blasphemer of the gods, and the priests, who, with in- 
visible hand, will reach and punish you as a betrayer ; 
therefore be silent, and listen to that wisdom whic 
I have further to make known to you/ 

" Athyrtis had gradually sunk into a deep stupor, sup 
ported her head in her hand, and still and silently 
hearkened to the words of the priest. Now she raised 
herself up. 

"'And if there are no gods,' said she, seriously and 
slowly, 'what are ye the priests of those divinities that 
do not exist ? Let me go out, reflect on your wicked 
words, condemn them, by prayer atone for every evil 
thought, and never return again. Yes; I swear it; 
never shall my foot touch this unholy threshold again !' 

"'You are free; and yet you will involuntarily re- 
turn here,' said the priest, quietly and pleasantly. 
' But once more I leave you the choice ; will you re- 
main and hear further ?' 

"'No!' cried Athyrtis, aloud, with all the power of 
her determination. ' No ; give me freedom !' 

"'Farewell, for a speedy meeting with each other 
again !' whispered the priest. 

"Athyrtis went out. 

" The priest could have held back the young daughter 
of the king, robbed her of her freedom, and indeed 
put her to death without the black deed becoming known 
to the public. But he gave her freedom ; he calculated 
with certainty and prudence on the future ; he needed the 
young maiden for his dark purposes, and he possessed, 
as you will see, invisible means enough to bring her 
back at any time within the walls of the temple. 

"On the same evening the priest summoned together 
all the associates of his order. They held long and 



? 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 137 

solemn councils. And when, also, the assembly was 
separated, the high-priest again sat busied in long and 
deep thought. But the first morning-beam found him 
zealously deciphering the old written character. 



"Weeks had passed; Athyrtis had not again allowed 
herself to be seen in the temple. Strictly true to her 
determination, she had avoided all meetings with the 
priest, and although in the first days after the events 
already related deep melancholy and sorrowfulness had 
weighed her down, yet by the unbounded love with 
which her life was adorned in her father's house gradu- 
ally her joyous feeling partly came back to her, and all 
that she had heard, seen or experienced on that even- 
ing, moved sometimes before her soul only as a bitter, 
distressing dream. Then dawned the birth-day of her 
royal father — the highest festival for all his subjects 
who felt contented and happy under his strict but just 
government. Already early in the morning the collec- 
tive priesthood of Memphis were assembled in the palace 
to greet the king at his awaking, in order in his pre- 
sence to pray and offer sacrifices for his prosperity. But 
the subject for whom these solemnities were prepared 
had not come in, and priests and prophets, horoscopes 
and hierogrammatists, stood mixed up with fierce soldiers, 
waiting in the ante-room. Sesom stepped aside with one 
of the ministers of the temple and whispered with him 
in a low tone words that could not be understood, while 
his black burning eyes, now and then with a searching 
glance, shot over the multitude, to make himself certain 
that they were unnoticed and unmarked. Then, sud- 
denly, he caught hold of the fold of his long-flowing 

12* 




138 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 



priestly linen robe and drew forth a little glass phial, 
which was so small that he could easily hide it in his 
hand. From his own hand he slid it softly into the 
hand of his attendant ; the contents were limpid and 
colorless as the purest spring-water. Two undistinguish- 
able words only he whispered further to the other. A 
look of agreement on both sides, and the crime was con- 
certed. The day beginning joyously was to end in 
sorrow. The king appeared, and the priests fell in hypo- 
critically among the ranks of the well-wishers. 

" The mid-day saw the whole company of courtiers and 
state officers seated at a splendid repast ; even the wo- 
men had come with their husbands and shared in the 
universal pleasure and joy. In Egypt the drinking hour 
begins at the end of the banquet ; the women then drink 
one or two cups in the society of their husbands, and 
withdraw afterward into the harem. Thus it was also 
to-day. In the large hall where the feast took place 
stood on one side a table filled, with cups and pitchers 
awaiting their destination. Two cups among these were 
specially distinguished as pledge-cups, particularly de- 
signed for the king and his lovely daughter : they glit- 
tered with the purest gold, and showed on the outside 
(formed of costly precious stones) the name-shields and 
letters of the king and Athyrtis. The cup-bearer stood 
awaiting the royal nod, and with constant eye directed to 
the king, close beside the wine-table. Many persons, filled 
with curiosity, who belonged to a lower rank, and had 
not been at the king's table, but had their place in a 
side-hall, here and there showed themselves in the great 
hall, admiring the costly articles of the regal table — its 
dishes, vases and elegant furniture. Thus also a minis- 
ter of the temple, unnoticed, ventured through the mov- 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 189 

ing multitude, and pressed forward even up to the table 
with the wine waiting to be tasted, wiiere he remained 
standing as if astonished and full of delight. 

" ' What costly furniture !' he whispered to the chief 
cup-bearer ; ' a kingdom could be bought for it, and 
might be weighed against it. But where are the royal 
cups which are so famed V 

" The cup-bearer readily showed them to him. i This 
larger one/ said he, 'is for the king, the smaller one 
for the princess;' and quickly turned again toward the 
king, in order not to let any nod escape him. This mo- 
ment the villain made use of, and while all eyes were 
directed to a beautiful and agreeable female slave, who 
enlivened the banquet by song and dance, unmarked he 
bent himself over the small cup in the form of a lotus- 
flower terminating below in a point, as if he was ad- 
miring its pure metal and costly gems, and quickly let 
fall the contents of the phial which he had received from 
the priest into the cup. Then he disappeared among 
the multitude. 

"When the banquet was ended and the well-known 
call for drinking to the guests was made, the king beck- 
oned. His own and Athyrtis's cups w^ere first filled with 
sparkling wine ; then followed the others. Every one 
held his cup, and the drinking began, with song and 
dance spiced with play and conversation. 

" Athyrtis, who sat beside her father, not far from the 
hated priest, wished to show the latter that instead of 
terror the joyousness and love of life had come back to 
her this evening, with scornful looks gazed on him, and 
then turned herself with ecstatic laugh to her father : — 

" ' May the gods grant thee long life, health and 
strength ; may they bestow on thee and thy posterity 



140 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

victory, fame, and constant dominion over the Land of 
Ptah, that the sovereignty may continue to thee and thy 
children forever !' 

"So she spoke enthusiastically, and emptied her cup. 
The king was enraptured vrith the enchanting smile, 
sparkling eyes and charming appearance of his lovely 
child. Ah, ruin undreamed of was near ! Athyrtis had 
to-day laughed for the last time. 

" The king, after a few moments, turned toward her 
graciously with his cup to drink in turn to her. But 
he, and all who had followed his eyes and looked in the 
face of the king's daughter, drew back affrighted. 
Athyrtis had become deadly pale ; an unearthly fire 
shone from her otherwise so soft and peaceful eyes. 
With her right arm uplifted, she began as one inspired 
by a god : — 

"'What do you stand astonished at? Do you not 
know me who have come among you to announce the 
disasters of after-times ? Do you not know your Isis, 
your goddess, the queen of this land, the pupil of 
Hermes, the wife and sister of the King Osiris ? Have 
I not proved myself your benefactress ? have I not 
for you invented prosperity, agriculture ? have I not 
brought forth little Horus, the son of light ?* Hear 
my words ! Thousands of years pass before my view. I 
see enemies in the South, in the East, and in the North; 
I see how they, one after another, break in, overflow my 
land, and drive me myself from my dominion. I see yet 
more ! I see the temples desolate, the palaces fallen 
into ruins ; I see men walking about with hoe and 
shovel, who in vain seek for the proud regal city in the 
* Diod. I. 27. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 141 

ruins of Memphis ; I see others who bear off our monu- 
ments of stone, obelisks, tablets and sarcophagi, to the 
cold North. The land of Ptah disappears from the hori- 
zon ; its gods are no more, its temples are destroyed, 
its corpses are moldered ! Yes, you are right, wise 
priest, there is no immortality !' 

"That was the first outbreak of the feyer or madness. 
Sinking back exhausted, the unfortunate girl was caught 
by her father, and, her handmaidens hastening forward, 
she was borne by them into a side-chamber and laid 
upon a couch. The joyous company was thrown into 
confusion ; and as the king, in his terror and anguish, 
had not thought to give any definite command, so the 
courtiers, after they had sprung up in horror from their 
seats, silently looked to his place with anxious expecta- 
tion for the development of the tragedy. 

" Finally, the king called for the physicians. Our 
medical science was at all times in a sad state ; I do 
not say that our priests had not essayed to acquaint 
themselves with the effects of the medicinal plants which 
Egypt produces so abundantly : they also had, as far as 
it was possible for them, studied the principal and spe- 
cific diseases ; but the extension of this knowledge was 
limited and hindered by laws the most wonderful, yet 
sacred on account of their age. "What anatomical know- 
ledge and facilities could they gain, when the dissection 
of a corpse was regarded as a punishable sacrilege ? How 
could they by new researches extend this science, while 
every novelty was looked upon as a departure from the 
old consecrated laws of medicine ? How, in short, could 
they effect a fortunate cure in difficult diseases, since 
for every symptom there were specific physicians, with 



142 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

particular law-books, as those for the eyes, head, teeth, 
belly, feet, &c. ?* 

"So it was here. From every side of the hall poured 
in physicians : those who were not present at the feast 
were summoned, by quick messengers, from their tem- 
ples. Every one of these latter bore on his head an 
apothecary's small box, which in particular divisions 
contained surgical instruments and the necessary reme- 
dies in little phials and boxes. f In these were extracts 
of the roots of thistle, chicory-juice, pills rolled out of 
pounded roots of wall-lettuce, juice of chervil, oil from 
the seed of saffron-flowers, asparagus-root steeped in 
vinegar, the red berries of the so-called scorpion-weed, 
a black powder prepared from the ashes of papyrus, and 
many others. 

"Finally, to calm the maiden, and probably to throw 
her into a salutary sleep, a portion of the last-mentioned 
powder was scattered into wine, and in spite of her re- 
sistance this drink was given to her. J 

"In the mean while all who did not belong to the 
ministers of Esculapius withdrew and dispersed them- 
selves about the ante-room. Only the physicians 
watched and with anxious solicitude observed the pro- 
gress of the disease. Sesom, who as prophet possessed 
a great amount of theoretical medical knowledge, di- 
rected the whole and had the reputation of being able 
to express a wise and unerring judgment, went uneasily 
up and down in the hall, after he had at first apparently 
regarded the poor creature with the greatest sympathy, 

* Herod. II. 86. Diod. I. 82. Herod. II. 84. 
f Such an apothecary's small box is in the Royal Museum at Ber- 
lin, in the glass cases of the Historical Saloon. 
% Compare my Thoth, p. 144. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 143 

and felt and examined her pulse and the beating of her 
heart. When finally the king had come to him with 
a look full of despair, and begged of him his opinion, 
he bowed down low and reverentially before his sove- 
reign, raised his right hand toward heaven and said, 
with a solemn voice — 

" ' Neither Isis nor Serapis can save her ; she will never 
again awake from her sleep !' 

" As is the case among all people and at all times — 
and is indeed yet the case with you, who give yourselves 
out to be enlightened and educated — after this cruel ex- 
pression, despairing of the help of the physicians, they 
turned to their superstition : they sent to the various 
oracles in the region around to search out a remedy. 
But was it chance, or had Sesom the guidance? The 
oracles, which always in such cases were ready with an- 
swers of all kinds, remained dumb.* After some four 
hours of apparently quiet slumber, the king's daughter 
was no more. 



" As the Greek authors correctly relate, in Egypt they 
show almost as great honor to queens and female mem- 
bers of the royal family as to the kings themselves; so 
Athyrtis, first in the capital, and, after her death was 
known, through the whole land, was universally lamented 
with the deepest sorrow and sincerity. Next, all the 
inmates of the harem undertook the usual mourning 
procession through the streets of Memphis, in which 
they besmeared and disguised their faces with earth and 
mire, made bare the breast, cried with loud voices for 
the dead, smote themselves and tore out their disheveled 
hair. The men did the same; for seventy days no razor 
* Herod. II. 133. Diod. I. 81. 



144 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

came upon their heads ; and while they denied them- 
selves every convenience and agreeable and dainty food 
and drink, and even the so indispensable bath, they 
openly and solemnly made known their deep sorrow. 

"But we return to Athyrtis's corpse. Already the 
next day, at Sesom's command, appeared in the palace 
twelve ministers of the temple, with a sort of funeral 
litter close shut up and covered over, in which the dead 
was laid. In solemn funeral procession they thus bore 
it into an adjoining chamber of the temple of Ptah, 
where the embalmers carried forward their work which 
belonged to a lower class of the priests. After the king 
had given to the high-priest present his special direc- 
tions respecting the embalming, the inscriptions which 
the mummy covers and the sarcophagus should bear, 
&c.,* Sesom withdrew." 

[Horus here drawing his breath made a stop. I felt 
that he had reached to the development of his story, and 
followed his further account with increasingly intent ex- 
pectation.] 

"You think now," he went on, "I am going to describe 
to you the details of the process of embalming. No ! it 
was different from what you may imagine. Under the 
protection of the night a shoemaker, with his eyes blind- 
folded, was conducted from his shop, up and across 
through the streets of Memphis, and finally brought 
into the temple already known to us, to a side-cell be- 
fore Sesom. Here, after the most splendid promises, 
he was instructed to manufacture, according to the exact 
proportions which the priest gave him, a leather doll. 
Leather, straw, needles and everything necessary for 
his work he found already lying prepared in the cell, 
* Herod I. 85. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 145 

and stimulated by the hope of a large reward, he began 
his work quickly by the light of two lamps as soon as 
Sesom had bolted the door and gone away. In the 
morning it was done, and — after being shut up till 
the next night, and then again, with eyes blindfolded, 
bound to silence, and loaded for his wages with more 
silver than he had ever before earned in his whole life — 
he was taken back to his shop ; the ministers of the tem- 
ple took the doll that had been manufactured in order 
to substitute it for the corpse of Athyrtis. Everything 
else was then done according to the rules of the art and 
as the king had commanded. The leather figure was 
wrapped up from head to foot in cotton bandages of dif- 
ferent widths, and especially the head, the body and each 
of the arms and legs. Then the arms were laid crosswise 
over the breast, and the whole body wrapped up in new 
rolls, until no one could distinguish either the head or 
limbs, and the whole had exactly the exterior look of a 
mummy. Over this whole mummy (as I will now call 
it) from the head to the foot was laid a sort of long 
mask, which consisted of many pieces of cotton glued 
together, to which, finally, was applied a coating of 
gypsum. Now came the painter, who, according to the 
direction of the hierogrammatist, painted with various 
colors on the head-end a female face, and on the other 
parts of the mask mythological representations — a whole 
Egyptian pantheon. Finally, on the middle of this 
mask, from the chin down to the knees, was fastened a 
broad gilded strip of wood, an inch wide, on which the 
sacred scribe had engraved the following short inscrip- 
tion : — ' She is gone over to a reunion with Osiris, who 
forever shines in Egypt ; she, the king's daughter, the 
darling of Isis and the other divinities, the pupil of 

13 



146 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

Thoth, acquainted with the art of prophecy, the wise 
Athyrtis, born of the legal wife, the queen, who has 
already gone before her into Anienthes, and daughter of 
the powerful King, N.N., beloved of Ptah and Isis.'* 

"After some weeks the sarcophagus ordered was brought 
from the cabinet-maker's shop. It was formed of syca- 
more, or the so-called mulberry fig-tree, but not as most 
others which are found at the present day in many cata- 
combs and subterranean tombs in the form of a Greek 
Hermes, but in the perfect human form, representing on 
the cover the image of a maiden reposing with her arms 
crossed over her breast, in w T hich the carved visage ap- 
peared to have really some resemblance to the dead Athyr- 
tis. The cabinet-maker had given a genuine specimen of 
his art ; the hands and feet, the folds of the dress reaching 
down to the ancles, chains and ornaments were carved in 
the wood in a manner most fitted to deceive any one.f 
In this sarcophagus the mummy was laid ; objects of de- 
light and adornment which had belonged to the deceased, 
and that had been sent by the king to the temple — a 
mirror, costly elegant sandals, golden ear-drops and 
rings, and lastly rolls of papyrus which had been pre- 
pared and written by the sacred scribes, and were wont 
to be furnished and filled out with the names of the de- 
ceased for w r hose sepulchres they were chosen — occupied 
the places left empty in the sarcophagus. These rolls 
of papyrus contained the biography of Athyrtis, prayers 
to the gods of the lower world, to whom they believed 
she would descend, justifications which were to be put in 

* Almost all mummies, or tlieir sarcophagi, contain similar in- 
scriptions. Compare Seyffarth, Theologische Schriften der Alien 
JEgypter. Gotha, 1855, p. 41, ff, and 49. 

f Such a sarcophagus is in the Royal Egyptian Museum at Berlin. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 147 

her mouth before the subterranean judges, representa- 
tions of her holy life in the kingdom of the gods and 
many other things. So the wooden coffin stood in the 
cell of the temple and waited the stone chest of granite 
which was yet in the hands of the artist, and was to be 
furnished with mythological representations and hiero- 
glyphical inscriptions, and in which, after seventy days, 
it would be placed in a solemn procession. 

" But you ask where, in the mean time, was Athyrtis? 
As soon as her corpse was brought into the temple 
Sesom had caused it to be taken from the embalming 
hall into a subterranean vault already darkened. Here 
lay Athyrtis, in the glimmer of an eternal lamp, on a 
soft carpet, as one sleeping. She was not dead. The 
intoxicating charm which the priest had caused to be 
dropped into her cup, and by which he had thrown her 
into this catalepsy, was a diluted extract of strychnos 
berries, (I 5 ) a kind of night-shade, the medicinal but also 
dangerous effects of which were then already known to 
our priests.* 

"After a few hours Sesom appeared with an antidote. 
'Now, thou art mine!' he whispered, with an unholy 
and triumphant tone. 'But,' he added, speaking to 
himself, ' should my art deceive me now ; if she really 
should not awake ? Yet no, no ! She must awake ; she 
must be the instrument in the hand of the all-powerful 
priest to destroy the proud kingly house.' 

"And by way of trial he siezed her hand ; he sought 
long, silently and with anxious look for the first beat of 
the pulse ; finally a flash of indescribable joy shot from 
his eyes ; he had felt a weak pulse, an almost impercepti- 
ble quiver. But there was yet life in the cold, death-like 
* Pliny Nat. Hist. XXI. 30, and XXVI. 12. 



: 



148 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

body of Athyrtis. Immediately the priest drew from 
his girdle a little phial, with the contents of which he 
rubbed the temples and brow of the swooned girl ; then 
with great effort he forced open her convulsively-closed 
mouth and poured into it some drops of the same liquid, 
which had scarcely touched her tongue than she made an 
involuntary movement with her right arm. 

" Silently Sesom withdrew from the vault ; a servant of 
the temple, called in, set a pitcher of water, a bowl of 
wine and a loaf of wheat bread at the door, on the stony- 
floor, and after a few minutes Athyrtis was again alon 
behind the closed bolts. 

" Finally she awoke from her catalepsy without bein. 
able to remember what had occurred. With the last 
joyful and child-like look on her father had departed, 
also, her consciousness. Astonished and confused she 
raised herself up. Opposite to her bed, on the wall, 
stood a shrine, in which was a statue of Osiris, enthroned 
as usually he is represented, as the judge of the dead, 
known by his crown, scourge, crooked staff and neck- 
lace of judgment. Her eye glanced thence to the right 
wall, where in a tall painting was represented the well- 
known court of the dead. Here she saw a dead person 
enter and pray to the goddess of justice, beheld the 
balance in which the heart was examined by the gods 
Anubis and Horus, saw the god Thoth with the writing- 
reed and papyrus in his hands for noting down the re- 
sult of the trial. Above the whole representation, 
finally, she saw the forty-two judges of the dead, well- 
known to her, sitting, and with ostrich feathers, the 
sign of their judicial dignity, on their heads.* Was she 

* Uhlemann, Todtengericlit bei der Alten iEgypter, Berlin, 1854, 
pp. 10-12. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 149 

dead? Was this the immortality believed in by her, 
desired and so ardently longed for ? Had she descended 
into Amenthes, and here, too, were there no eternal and 
living gods ? Was she here, in the lower world, shut up 
between stone walls, with lifeless stony images of the 
gods ? — Thus she questioned herself without being able 
to answer her questions, and overcome by the thought 
and exhausted sank back upon her pillow. 

" But life conquered, and without in her thought com- 
ing to any conclusions, she was warned by the wants 
and demands of the body of the duties of life. By de- 
grees she sought and found the earthly food, felt herself 
more and more strengthened, and only lamented that 
she had been so soon torn away from life and her loved 
father's house. Was not her father the mightiest in the 
whole land ? Could any one but almighty death have 
robbed him of her ? No ! The thought that she was 
dead gained increasing force in her soul, and even more 
and more probability. 

" Thus a long period passed. Forty times the sun 
had risen in the east, and as often had it proclaimed the 
noontide and declined to evening without being able to 
cast a ray into the subterranean prison of the unfor- 
tunate girl. Forty times had the door opened and an 
invisible hand had thrust new food and drink into the 
vault without an answer following her fervent prayers 
and supplications, her sighs and weeping. Forty days 
were past. 

"After this period of time, during which Athyrtis had 
undergone every degree of anguish and despair, the high- 
priest believed he might advance to the further execu- 
tion of his purpose. His prisoner should know that she 

13* 



150 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

was wholly in his power ; that every possibility of re- 
turn to life was cut off if she would not subject herself 
to his pleasure. 

" One day Athyrtis lay before the stone image of Osiris 
and implored with the most fervent prayers that he 
would be alive again, and that he would reveal himself 
to her. 

" Then Sesom entered in his funeral robes and orna- 
ments, as though he would follow a dead person to his last 
resting-place, and at the entrance of the sepulchre offer 
the sacrifice of the dead. He wore only a slight linen 
tunic, over which hung a leopard's skin, exactly as you 
saw on the high-priest in the funeral procession at Lake 
Moeris. He came up close behind, and while she yet 
was stammering out the words of the prayer, and 
dreamed nothing of what awaited her, he called out 
her name with a loud and commanding tone, which re- 
sounded through the stone walls of her subterranean 
chamber. The young maiden sunk down affrighted, 
without daring to look up. Was it one of the divini- 
ties which suddenly opened his mouth and addressed 
her ? 

"'Athyrtis !' said the priest, whose voice she now re- 
cognized with terror, ' I have kept my word ; you are 
again in my temple. For the second time I demand 
obedience as formerly, when I left you the freedom to 
choose and to return back to life. To-day the bridge 
between death and life is broken off behind you. You 
have nothing more to do with the living, if I do not lead 
you back to them. Follow me !' And he caught her, 
trembling, by the hand, and led her, without her daring 
to resist, into the adjoining vaulted chamber from which 
he had entered. Here stood the wooden sarcophagus, 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 151 

richly adorned with hieroglyphics. The cover, on which 
Athyrtis saw carved her own likeness in wood, lay close 
by, and in the open coffin rested the mummy. She came 
up to it. 

"'Here rests your body/ continued the merciless 
priest. 'Read yourself the inscription, which an- 
nounces your death. You are dead, and your spirit 
has flown out of your body. But this spirit is, as you 
see, in the power of the all-powerful priest who com- 
mands over the living and the dead. Now, choose yet 
once more ! Will you return to an eternal subterranean 
imprisonment ; to your lifeless and silent gods ? Re- 
flect ! To an eternal endless imprisonment, loss of fame 
and solitude ! To-day there is yet sorrow, mourning 
and lamentation for you in your father's palace ; in 
thirty days the coffin will be closed ; you will be buried 
up and forgotten. But I promise to you eternal fame 
and immortality, with prosperity, if you choose another 
part. You shall return to your father ; shall be his pro- 
tecting spirit, and while you tear him away from his 
inactivity and lead him to glorious battle and war, 
you shall make him and yourself immortal. Will you 
obey?' 

"Athyrtis reflected: shudderingly, she in thought 
looked back to the past weeks of loneliness. Two ways 
stood open to her — here was eternal forgetfulness and 
oblivion ; there beckoned to her love, honor and fame. 
Female weakness conquered. There is no more fright- 
ful thought for a woman than to be forgotten, forsaken 
and solitary; she wishes to know that she is loved, 
adored and admired. This is woman's nature ; and 
the king's poor daughter, grown up in the midst of love 
and honors, followed her natural impulse. She promised 



152 TIIEEE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

obedience to the priest ; and who can, on this account, 
cast a stone at her and condemn her ? who, in the same 
situation, would have done otherwise ? But it was not 
easy to conquer her dislike, hatred and opposition to 
the priest ; and it was not till after a long internal 
struggle she spoke, trembling, and with a low and 
scarcely audible voice, 'I will obey !' 

"'You have chosen what is the best,' replied the 
priest. 'But here, on thine own mummy, swear to 
me only to do as I command you : if you become re- 
bellious and disobedient, so may your body fall to pieces 
and molder, and never again be inhabited by a soul for 
thousands of years ; may it be torn out of its grave by 
the hands of our enemies, and as a warning example of 
faithlessness be carried out of the country of your gods 
to the far North, where no lotus-flower blooms, where no 
palm shades the way;* may you yourself then await 
new eternal imprisonment in the kingdom of the dead 
below the earth ! Swear !' 

" Athyrtis uttered the required oath. At this moment 
the power of the kingdom was broken, and the priest- 
hood began triumphantly to raise its bowed head. 



" The day of the burial of the king's daughter was over. 
In the palace, though the deceased was yet deeply la- 
mented at heart by many, yet at least outwardly there 
was a return to peace and tranquillity. The usual order 
and the old course of affairs and business were observed 
as before ; nothing more recalled to mind the days of 
mourning. Only the king was filled with the deepest 

* The mummy of a young Egyptian beauty by the name of Athyr, 
is in the Royal Museum at Berlin. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 158 

anguish that his only child had gone before him to the 
realm of death, of whom he had hoped that, as a second 
Nitocris,* she would mount the throne after him, and 
as powerful as a man would rule the land of her fathers. 
This dream, a beautiful hope, was now dashed in pieces 
and destroyed. 

"In the mean while the rainy season, often continuing 
many months in Lower Egypt, had commenced ; a tem- 
pestuous north wind blew through the streets of Mem- 
phis, and shook even the solid and imperishable stone 
walls of the palace. The king had retired into his sleep- 
ing chamber, lighted by a single lamp, but no sleep came 
to his eyes, and he tossed himself unquietly on his pil- 
low ; while in the ante-chamber, the watchmen of his 
body-guard, resting on their lances and leaning against 
the walls in a half-waking state, with closed eyes, waited 
for their dismissal. Then glided past them a white airy 
form ; only one of the watch noticed it, and rubbed his 
eyes: then it had vanished. 'I was dreaming!' mut- 
tered the soldier to himself, and let his head sink again 
on his arm which held his lance stayed on the floor just 
under its iron point. 

"The king, who had closed his eyes for some minutes, 
suddenly started up, astonished and affrighted. A soft 
delicate hand had touched his brow. But when he had 
opened his eyes, he raised himself up fully, and sunk 
back again confused. A tall figure, covered from the 
head to the feet with a white veil, stood before him : 

* Herodotus, II. 100. Nitocris, according to Manclho, belonged to 
the Sixth Dynasty, was the bravest among the men and the most 
beautiful among the women of her time, and built the third pyramid. 
She reigned twelve years, and her name (the victorious Neith) is im- 
mortalized on many monuments. 



154 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

only the deathlike pale face, from which shone out two 
black fiery eyes, was to be seen. It was the face — of his 
daughter ! 

" Thus the father and daughter again met each other; 
yet not as formerly, in love, but with contradictory 
feelings, sundered by the horrible decree of the priest. 
Could the father believe it was his daughter, whom 
he had himself accompanied to the court of death, 
and even into the sepulchral chamber ? Could the 
daughter make herself known to her father, bound as 
she was by a horrid oath, and sometimes under a delu- 
sion, believing herself to be bodily dead? The king, 
collecting his thoughts, laid his hand on his brow, 
covered with a cold sweat : he, too, believed himself 
in a dream. But as the form stood immovable and 
always looking steadily at him, the unhappy father felt 
that he was not dreaming, that he was awake, and that 
he saw before him his beloved child. 

" 'My daughter — Athyrtis !' were the only words which 
he could at last utter. 

"'Not your daughter — not Athyrtis !' answered the 
form, with the loved voice so well known to him, but 
now solemn and serious. i Your daughter you have 
buried : Athyrtis is dead, and in the realm of shades 
awaits a new life, after thousands of years, when the 
cycle is ended and a new life begins for the whole 
world!' 

"'But who art thou?' cried the king, retreating a 
step backward. 

" 'I am one of those higher beings who walk through 
the heavens in the ministry of the supreme gods, who 
came down here from the gods to execute their com- 
mand. I am your genius, your guardian spirit, who, 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 155 

born with you, protected your childhood, defended your 
youth, and watch over your manhood.* To-day -Osiris 
the lofty, the eternal god, sends me to speak to you the 
words which he has put into my mouth. Your daughter 
has gone down into Amenthes without glory ; already 
she is to-day forgotten and no monument will proclaim 
her deeds. Will you, too, so go down from this wide 
world, forgotten by posterity ? The king is the succes- 
sor of Osiris ; you must protect and extend the kingdom 
he founded; you must imitate -him in his blessed works. 
Osiris went out over the circle of the earth ; not this 
little Egypt only was his — no ! the remote North, the 
impenetrable South, were bound to his sway. But the 
lands which he passed through, the people he conquered, 
the kings and princes whom he subdued,— they are now 
but names, empty names. Sesostris was a worthy suc- 
cessor of the king of the gods. Shall there never be a 
second Sesostris ? Shall both of them have sown the 
seed only for himself, and not for posterity? Be a man 
if you would be immortal ! Life in the world beneath 
(through which I have traveled) is empty, solitary and 
horrible ; the true immortality only is glory with pos- 
terity. If your people bless you, if your enemies fear 
you, the nations of the North and South bow beneath 
your sceptre, — then will your name be immortal, though 
after you another royal dynasty may rule the land of 
Ptah!' 

"Then seizing the hand of the king, she went on as if 
inspired : — 

" i And what a shame will it be for you and your times 
that the bounds of the illimitable empire of Osiris in the 
North were washed by the Danube, and in the East by 
* Censorinus de die Natali, chap. iii. 



156 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

the Ganges,* while your own kingdom is only watered 
by the Nile,f whose sources are also yet unknown to 
you. On the other side of the Cataracts still dwell your 
enemies and rejoice over your weakness, in which you 
leave them undisturbed. But I see you on your war- 
chariot, in the midst of your countless host, in Ethiopia ; 
see how the hated black tribes of the South bow their 
necks beneath your iron will ; see you in triumph return 
back, greeted by the jubilee of your people and blessings 
and prayers of the priests ; I see, finally, your name 
immortalized on the war-pictures and monuments ; see 
you shine among the immortal sovereigns of the land in 
the annals of the empire. The night is nearly gone ; 
in a few hours Osiris will mount up, proclaiming the 
morning dawn. Let it be a new morning dawn of fame 
and immortality for you, for your house and king- 
dom !' 

" After these words, she laid her hand over the eyes 
of the king, while he, astonished and wondering, as also 
distressed by the strange apparition, withdrew from her 
his hand, and exhausted and faint sank down on his 
couch. Probably the priest had provided her with some 
soporific charm; hardly had he been touched by her than 
the king fell into a deep slumber, and the mysterious 
figure disappeared in the same way by which she had 
come. 

" Not till the sun sent his warming rays into the cham- 
ber did the king first awake ; but then sleep had fol- 
lowed so close upon the events of the night, and both 
had passed away so imperceptibly blended, his first 
thought was that a revelation had been made to him in 
a dream-vision of that w T hich the cunning spirit of the 
* Diod. I. 17-20. Herod. II. 102. Diod. I. 53, ff. f Herod. II. 18 



THKEE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 157 

priest had, after mature reflection, introduced to him. 
Long sat the sovereign of the realm buried in serious 
thoughts. Should he call the interpreters of dreams and 
seek from the priests an explanation ? But why ? The 
vision was clear and plain, the command of the god di- 
rect and capable of no misinterpretation.* Finally, he 
raised himself and looked out of the window down upon 
his Memphis, where already life and activity had begun 
in every house and every shop. 'And I alone,' he 
cried out, ' am idle ! The morning dawn has found me 
asleep, while I should be watching over the welfare of 
my people and the glory of the land. Yes, my beloved, 
my dear people, you shall not reproach me in the judg- 
ment, at death, that I was weak and inactive and a mere 
tool, without a will of my own, in the hands of the 
priests. But I, too, will bring in a morning dawn, the 
morning dawn of power and splendor. Thou and thy 
gods shall reign as far as the foot of man can pene- 
trate !' 

"He quickly opened the door which led into the front 
hall. Fixed and motionless stood the watch, and greeted 
him silently, while with their right hand they rested 
their lances on the floor and laid their left upon their 
breasts. 

" 6 Call to me the commander of the body-guard,' com- 
manded the king, and turned, as he went on through the 
watch toward the audience-chamber. 

"War in Egypt was at all times the watchword for the 
freedom of the kings. The sovereigns of the country 
were restricted to the utmost by the priests in their 
State affairs and private occupations ; no important 

* The unconditional obedience of the kings to dreams was not rare 
in Egypt. Compare Gen. chap. xli. ; Herod. II. 141. 

14 



158 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

conclusion could be made by them, no judgment be 
established by them, without the will of the priests :* 
but since the times of the famous Sesostris they were, 
as commanders in war, the unlimited monarchs over 
the army and its actions. With the word 'war/ the 
land assumed a wholly different appearance ; the king 
came forth from his inactivity and idleness, and, like a 
Roman consul, he strode on proudly, in the conscious- 
ness of his dignity, to inflict punishments, give laws, 
issue commands and choose his officers ; and the dis- 
cipline of war created for him power, might and author- 
ity, which in peace he never enjoyed. 

"Thus, at this time the word 'war' sounded forth to 
the astonished people from the palace at Memphis. 
Messengqrs hurried onward and back to carry to every 
portion of the country the king's commands, which 
awakened an unwonted activity. After eight days the 
standing army was mustered, which in a great measure 
were stationed in Lower Egypt, the weakest part of the 
land, and so could be easily gathered together at Mem- 
phis. It was a splendid army of 400,000 infantry and 
20,000 war-chariots ; but, as the country must not be 
robbed of all its fighting strength, other levies had to 
be made. Every class — artists, merchants, mechanics 
and farmers — must furnish their young men, from 
eighteen to twenty years old, from whom the king 
himself chose the most able-bodied, and by this means 
his army was doubled in its strength. The great and 
rich armories were opened, the new soldiers were fur- 
nished with all kinds of offensive and defensive weapons, 
and drilled to the use of them, as well as in marches 
and conflicts. Thus in a few months an army, well- 
* Diod. I. 71. 



THREE BAYS IN MEMPHIS. 159 

appointed and trained for war, was ready, and the pur- 
posed campaign could begin toward the country of the 
blacks.* 

" The army presented a magnificent and splendid sight 
from the pinnacles of the temple, as like a mighty royal 
serpent it wound its way along into the valley of the 
Nile here some miles broad. In front was a large di- 
vision of light-armed troops, having bows five to six feet 
long and on their backs quivers filled with arrows; 
then a part of the heavy infantry with brazen helmets, 
coats of mail, shields and lances ; then a division armed 
with slings. To these were joined the royal body-guard, 
with spear and battle-ax, who followed the king in 
his war-chariot, surrounded by the noblest warriors of 
the land, also in war-chariots. f But among these war- 
chariots, close to the king, there was one which above 
all others excited the amazement and wonder of the 
people. It was one of the most beautiful in the whole 
line ; all parts of it were adorned in the richest manner 
with golden ornaments of every kind. An old black 
slave guided the reins of the horses that were of a 
dazzling white, wondrously contrasting with the other 
dark-colored ones. Near the slave stood, leaning on an 
elegant lance, whose shaft of a black wood was studded 
all over with pearls and precious stones, a tall, powerful 
female form. Her face was not to be seen, as it was 
covered by the vizor of a warrior's helmet ; only the 
fire of her black eyes shone out unearthly through the 
opening of the protecting bars. It was Athyrtis, the 

* Compare the war-pictures of Karnak, Beitnalli, Ipsambul, and 
Medinet-Abu, in Kosellini Mon. Real. Plates XLV.-CXL. 
f Wilk. I. 290-354. 



1(30 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

guardian spirit of the ting, who accompanied him also 
to the war, in order at all times to stir up his courage 
and to inspire his sinking powers anew to a glowing 
thirst for deeds. I might compare her to the Grecian 
Athena, who corresponds exactly to our Egyptian Neith.* 
Like her, Athyrtis stood in her chariot, veiled in her 
long white robe, motionless, with a helmet on her head, 
her spear in her right hand and shield in her left. Fol- 
lowing the chariots were a great multitude, with all sorts 
of instruments of camp and siege, with storming-ladders, 
wall-breakers, and the necessary platforms for protect- 
ing them ;f and after these came, finally, new troops of 
light-armed and heavy infantry, in their various kinds 
of arms, with lances, swords, daggers, clubs, scourges, 
bows and slings. Every division had its own insignia 
and standards, which mostly were the ensigns of the 
Nomes or districts of the country to which they be- 
longed ; most of the.banners consisted of tall poles, on 
which were paraded sacred animals, as the Ibis, hawk, 
cat, crocodile, &c, in gold and silver. Thus the line of 
march moved on slowly toward the South, for a mile 
around causing the earth to tremble at the measured 
tread of the infantry. 

"In all places to which, one after another, the army 
came — in Crocodilopolis, Heracleopolis, Oxyrrhynchos, 
Hermopolis, Apollinopolis, Thebes, Latopolis — it was re- 
ceived by the people with astonishment, exultation and 
enthusiasm, and dismissed by the priesthood with sacri- 
fices, prayers and blessings. Every one praised the 
mighty king who was going forth to subdue the blacks, 
against whom already many kings before him had unsuc- 
cessfully waged war ; many also fell down in adoration 

* Plato in Timreus. f Wilk. I. 300. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 161 

before the incarnate Keith, who seemed to have appeared 
on earth to protect the king in all dangers and afford 
him a victory in his warlike expeditions. 

" When the army had reached to the southern bcfundary 
of the kingdom, the king made a halt directly over 
against the island of Philse, on which the later Grecian 
kings erected such glorious and magnificent monuments. 
Here he once more threw back a look on the land of his 
forefathers, which he was probably leaving for years, 
and called into the presence of the assembled army, and 
a vast multitude of the people who had poured on after 
him, a worthy man by the name of Saophi, i.e. Son of 
the Serpent, whom he would leave behind as his vice- 
roy, and here wished to clothe with the ensigns of his 
high dignity as the representative of the king. He 
loosed the golden neck-chain which he had hitherto worn 
himself, and gave it to his future viceroy; he drew off 
also his ring from his finger, which contained a precious 
stone with the hieroglyphic letters of the king's name, 
and with which he hitherto, together with the signing 
of his name, had confirmed and accredited all his com- 
mands and decrees. This he likewise placed in Saophi's 
hand, and solemnly added, so loud that it might be 
heard at a distance — ' Take here these ensigns of your 
office, act in the name and the mind of the king, who 
delivers them to you ; and you, my people, who have 
thus far conducted me, and now are to return to your 
peaceful occupations, proclaim in the whole country and 
far and wide the last words and last command of the 
king, that they obey Saophi and his decrees as they have 
obeyed me and mine. May the Gods grant to me to re- 
turn to you victorious and crowned with glory!' 

" After a last sacrifice to the gods, and prayers and 

14* 



162 THREE DAY3 IN MEMPHIS. 

prophecies of the priests promising success, the king be- 
gan his march of conquest toward the South, and the 
viceroy returned to Thebes, where he established the 
seat of*his government. 

" You do not need to accompany the king in all his 
splendid and victorious marches ; everywhere the enemy, 
after a short resistance, fled before the vast Egyptian 
army ; fortresses were destroyed, cities laid waste, and 
prisoners carried away out of all places to adorn the 
future triumph, and then, as slaves of the State, to 
pine out their lives in the mines and the hardest bond- 
age. If the enemy had offered a stout resistance, then 
the king himself seized upon a part of the fettered cap- 
tives by the hair and with his broad sword struck off 
their heads. An uninterrupted stream of blood marked 
the way which the army went, and if, in some weak mo- 
ments, the king became tired of the bloody work and 
longed for a return to the throne of his own peaceful 
reign, there was Athyrtis, who appeared to him like a 
vindictive goddess, and inflamed him with a new thirst 
of valiant deeds. 

" Thus fell the mightiest cities of the country of the 
blacks ; and, finally, we find the king with his army on 
the coast of the sea which separates Asia and Africa, 
before the powerful and well-fortified royal city Saba, 
which had already for a year bid defiance to the siege. 
The Sabaens were a dangerous and fearful foe ; they were 
famed for their great riches and power, for their mighty 
and tall bodily frames, far exceeding the small con- 
tracted stature of the Egyptians.* Many times already 
had they tried bold sorties, but they were obliged always 
to retire before the superior force of the besiegers. 
* Isaiah xliii. 3- xly. U, Ps. lxxii. 10. Herod. III. 20. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 1G3 

Finally the vfalls of the city tottered beneath the con- 
stant shocks of the Egyptian wall-breakers, which con- 
sisted of long and thick beams hung so as to move back 
and forth, and which were protected by a staging with 
a roof, so that they could be run close up to the walls 
without exposing the warriors who were employed to any 
danger of being wounded from the arrows, spears and 
stones launched down from above by the defenders.* 
The storming-ladders were set up at the same time, and 
after a horrible bath of blood inside of the city, the 
Sabaens were obliged to retire to their numerous ships ; 
and now began a fight such as had often taken place 
between the Egyptians and their enemies who practiced 
navigation. The king stood in the midst of the blood, 
and among the bodies of the slain on the shore, in his 
war-chariot ; archers surrounded him, and discharged 
their arrows out on the sea toward the valiantly-defended 
ships. f Then suddenly whizzed a slight, pointed arrow 
through the air ; no one could imagine whence it came, 
as the ships continually removed further and further 
off; but the arrow hit its mark, and pierced the eye of 
the Egyptian king. A cry of pain was heard, which 
for a moment sounded above the wild tumult of the 
battle. All looked toward the king's chariot. A veiled 
figure sprung from her chariot, threw away her spear 
and shield, and caught the fainting king in her loving 
arms. Her helmet had fallen from her head, and all 
recognized in this figure with black locks and fiery eyes 
the long-believed-dead daughter of the king, — Athyrtis. 
Amid the amazement produced by this strange occur- 

* Wilk. I. 360. 

f Such a fight is represented on the walls of the temple of Medinct- 
Abu, among the warlike deeds of Ramses IV. 



164 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

rence, and the confusion on account of the wounded 
king, who, holding his hand upon his eye, had sunk 
away in the greatest anguish, the fight ended. This 
moment the enemy made use of, sought to land again, 
and in compact masses pressed through to the Egyptian 
army, which, in the confusion and disorder, and deprived 
of its royal commander, was obliged to retreat. The 
guard, that had been broken up, finally gathered them- 
selves again around the king's chariot, which in the wild 
flight hurried on through the city and reached the camp. 
Here the physicians could first think of examining the 
king's eye. When he withdrew his hand with which he 
had as yet held it covered, he was blind. 

" And the end ? It happened to the king I am telling 
you of as to his great predecessors, who had conquered 
the earth and lost their own realm. Osiris returned 
from his great war-expeditions crowned with fame and 
as lord of the world, and was robbed of his life and 
sovereignty by the conspiracy of his ambitious and 
treacherous brother. Ambushes awaited Sesostris on his 
return home, which the brave hero could only escape by 
an ignoble sacrifice of the dearest of his possessions. 
His brother, whom he had left behind him as his viceroy, 
maliciously invited him, with his wife and children, to a 
banquet which was prepared under an elegant tent. But 
during the meal he caused bundles of rice to be laid 
about the tent, and these to be set on fire at once on all 
sides. Sesostris could only retain his kingdom by throw- 
ing two of his children on the burning wood and passing 
over them, as on a bridge, through the fire.* — So this 
Avarlike expedition was the signal in Egypt for an insur- 
rection and revolution for the discontented and ambi- 
* Herod II. 107. Diod. I. 57. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 105 

tious there. And thus, during the three years' absence 
of the now blind king, the good-natured but weak 
Saophi, through the wiles of the priests, was called forth 
and acknowledged as king; and while by him a new 
dynasty of Thebes appeared to rule the country, the 
priests as before bore sway from the recesses of their 
temple. So Sesom's plan was carried into effect, and 
his passion and revenge gratified. In all Lower Egypt, 
from Memphis to the mouths of the Nile, there was no 
mightier ruler than he. — And the blind king ! He was 
soon abandoned by his army. Ten years later there 
dwelt in the island of Philae, close by the bank of the 
Nile, in a poor little hut, an old blind beggar. No one 
cared about him ; no one wanted to know him. Only 
a daughter, with hair bleached by sorrow, and luster- 
less eyes, attended upon him ; and his only consolation 
was when the daughter wound her arm around him and 
slowly and safely led him along ; and he who could no 
more see might tenderly embrace her and ask — ' Is it 
you, my daughter?' 'I am your guardian spirit, who 
patiently waits for you till Osiris releases you from your 
sufferings !' was the daily answer, accompanied by sighs 
and tears." 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE EVENING WITH THE ROYAL BODY-GUARD — SOME 
PARTICULARS RESPECTING EGYPTIAN TRADE — A SOL- 
DIER-QUARREL — THE CAT. 

Horus concluded. As we rose from our stone seats, 
I cast a look of horror toward the window behind which 
the criminal in priestly robes had his abode. But the 
evening had come on as we had lingered with the tale ; 
we therefore started forth and walked through the 
broad, open space, which lay outstretched before the 
temple. For several minutes Horus went on silently at 
my side ; he thought of what he had been narrating to 
me, as I too was yet dwelling on what I had heard. 
Finally, I interrupted his thoughts with the question, 
"Where are you taking me now?" 

" To the watch-house of the palace," he replied ; " for 
I like the soldiers, and with them we can hear the latest 
news and learn what festivities await us to-morrow." 

"Festivities ! Is to-morrow a feast-day?" 

"Certainly; an important one — or rather, a succes- 
sion of feast-days begins with to-morrow. We are to- 
day in the last day of the month Mesori, and to-morrow 
is the first of the five intercalary days which separate 
it from the newly-beginning year, and, as you know, 
will be celebrated as the birthday of the gods.*( 16 ) On 
the first of them Osiris was born, and as you may ima- 

* Herod. II. 4. Diod. I. 43. Plutarch de Iside, chap. xii. 
166 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 167 

gine, the whole country will be given up to festivities. 
But you shall see ; so let us make haste." 

And as with the setting of the sun the air suddenly 
became quite cool, he seized my hand and drew me ra- 
pidly forward. Neither moon nor gaslight illumined the 
streets of Memphis ; and as the dusk quickly came on, 
I recognized, only for a moment, when a late passer-by 
hurried on with a torchlight, the dark outlines of the 
lofty buildings of the royal city. When we had reached 
the palace, we turned to the left around a corner, and 
stood befofe a stately wing adjoining, the foremost part 
of which was supported on eight pillars, and its door 
Was lighted by feeble lamps on both sides. A soldier, 
with the well-known battle-ax on his shoulder and a 
short sword at his side, walked up and down in the pil- 
lared hall, guarding the door before it, while he hummed 
a little song, as the louder shout and noise resounded to 
meet us from within. 

He readily gave us admission, for my soldier-dress 
made him suppose me to be an associate of the soldier- 
class, and so we entered the cheerfully-opened gate into 
a high, broad hall, in which hundreds of soldiers mixed 
up most variously stood round about or lay in conve- 
nient places on soft carpets. Their arms were piled up 
against the wall, and the horns for signals also hung 
there idly, as no one feared any hostile attack ; here 
the cup was going its rounds, there rattled the dice : 
serious or sportive conversation was lost in the confused 
noise of the whole, as a single wave is lost in the raging 
sea. 

" Within there," whispered my little conductor, while 
he pointed to a side-door which led into an adjoining 
room, "dwells the commander of the body-guard; he is 



168 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

one of the most powerful officers of the State ; for he 
not only commands the choicest troops of the country, 
but he is also at the salfte time the superintendent of the 
prisons, and under his supervision all executions and be- 
headings take place.* He is called Petisis ; he enjoys 
the great confidence of the present king, and is employed 
by him in ftie most important business and commis- 
sions." 

Our presence was hardly noticed or thought of by the 
soldiers ; only those who lay nearest the door through 
which we entered moved a little closer to rnake place 
for the strangers, that they might sit down on thg car- 
pet. We did so, as true Egyptians stretching the feet 
out forward and erecting the upper part of the body. 
Accident had conducted me near two dice-players, who 
were busily occupied with their game, made a great 
noise, and only now and then took a draught from their 
cups standing near them filled with wine, which is daily 
given out to the body-guard at the expense of the 
State.f " By the life of Pharaoh !" said one of them, 
as he set down his cup, "this wine is sour and hardly 
fit to drink ; . we ought to make complaint on account of 
such bad supplies. Bad wine, black bread and tough 
beef! It was formerly better, when Sesom had the 
supplying of us to entice and gain us for his new king." 

"And he, too, soon had to make place for a newer 
one," replied the other. "But cheer up ! for to-morrow 
at the feast they give us double measure, and it is to be 

* Gen. xxxix. 20, 21 ; lx. 3. Hammer Staatsverf. des Osman. 
Reiches, II. 44. Under the Ptolemies he is frequently mentioned in 
the inscriptions as apxtocouaro^vla^ and still at the present day plays 
an important part. 

f Herod. II. 168. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 169 

hoped, too, of better quality. Shfill we throw ? Come ! 
For half of the good things of the feast, three-quarters, 
or the whole?" 

And they threw by turns. The dice were exactly 
like ours ; and whoever first threw doublets, as we say, 
i.e. two equal sides, won the game, i^fter numerous 
throws, the first one finally gained it. 

"In truth," said the other, "it is as though to-day 
was already Typhon's Day, ill luck so persecutes me !* 
But once more — all or nothing !" 

And tliey threw again. 

I now turned to the other side, where behind little 
Horus jovial and powerful throats sang a joyous war-song, 
with Sesostris for its subject. For Sesostris the mighty 
conqueror was always regarded as the protecting patron 
and shining example of the soldier-class. ( 17 ) The song 
must have been generally well known, for the refrain of 
the single verses was always repeated on all sides. The 
substance of it was very much the follovfing : — 

" Five and twenty thousand chariot-riders 
And as many more of the drivers, 
And six hundred thousand men, 
Sesostris thus addressed : — 

" ' Up, and forth! in distant wars 
I lead you out to proud victory ; 
So raise your courage — 
Fight bravely and strike you well! 

" ' Up, ye bold chariot-fighters ! 
Up, ye riders, daring unto death! 
Up, my foot-soldiers ! fight well ; 
For your king pour out your blood !' 

* The middle one of the five intercalary days was the birthday of 
Typhon, and on that account was regarded as a peculiarly unlucky 
day. 

15 



170 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

" And they followed — all, all, 
To the trumpet's peal ; 
Rich in hope, joyous of heart, 
They marched out to the East. 
The foemen had to yield 
Beneath their hardy blows ; 
Even distant India's land 
Fell into Sesostris's power. 

" For the bold chariot-fighters, 
And the riders, daring unto death, 
And the foot-soldiers, fought well — 
For their king poured out their blood ! 

" In the cold Northern clime, too, 
They fought and battled on ; 
And the proud host of Ptah 
Was nigh to Ister's flood ; 
And again they ever sung 
Their joyous songs of victory ; 
And they sang bright and clear 
In the foeman's land ! 

" Ay, the bold chariot-fighters, 
And we riders, daring unto death, 
And the foot-soldiers, fight well — 
For the king pour out our blood ! 

"But, ah!" *.* » » 

Here the simple soldier-song, which I would gladly 
have heard to the end, and which I have sought to give 
in words as nearly corresponding as I am able,* was 
suddenly broken off by a new scene. A loud blow against 
the door, made as it seemed from without with the back 
side of a battle-ax, resounded in the hall and attracted 
universal attention, since it was without doubt the sig- 
nal of a call to service. One of the soldiers, an under- 

* Compare Papyr. Sallier, and Campagne de Rhamses le Grand. No- 
tice sur ce Manuscrit, par Fr. Salvolini. Paris, 1855. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 171 

officer of the corps, immediately rose up, went to the 
door, opened it and called out, in a tone somewhat 
angry on account of the unpleasant disturbance, " U 
petschop ?" — What's the matter ? 

But as he perceived several men outside and the 
spears of the night-police, he went out to take a report. 
In the mean time too the commander of the body-guard 
had his notice drawn to it, and sent one of the soldiers, 
constantly on the watch in a room adjoining his own, 
into the hall to ascertain what had occurred and to bring 
him the requisite information. 

In a few minutes the outside door opened and two 
men were thrust in, whom the before-mentioned inferior 
officer followed. He again shut the door, and seated 
himself in his old place, after he had communicated to 
the waiting soldier the necessary information, which was 
then further given in the adjoining room. The soldiers 
cast a glance of curiosity toward the new-comers, but 
only a single look, to return again once more to their 
cups and dice. It seemed to be no rare event for them. 
The two newly-introduced persons had their hands tied 
behind their backs, and from the account which I heard 
it appeared that they were merchants. One was un- 
questionably an Egyptian ; the other wore rope-sandals 
bound on the feet by miserable leather straps, a sort of 
head-band or turban on the head, a tunic fastened with 
a broad leather girdle about his hips, and had been 
covered in front with a broad woolen mantle full of' 
folds, but which had been taken off when they tied his 
hands and then bound crosswise over the right shoul- 
der. His long and stiff black head of hair, his whiskers 
and beard, showed him to be an Oriental, and doubtless 
a Ben Israel, or Hebrew. He kept constantly crying 



172 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

out — "Beschem Elohai, naki ani !" i.e. In the name of 
God, I am innocent ! But when he noticed that no one 
heeded him, no one did or would understand his words, 
he finally seated himself in a corner and let his head 
sink despairingly upon his knees. The two merchants 
had accused each other of fraud and false measures, and 
raised so loud a noise in a tavern that the police-guard 
laid hold of them and brought them to the watch-house, 
whence, according to the Egyptian custom, they would 
in the morning be taken to the prison, to remain there 
until the judicial decision on their trial. In any case, 
the innocent had cause to complain, as on the festival 
days now at hand there would be no sitting of the 
court. 

Much as I pitied the unfortunate, yet it was a god- 
send to me, as I hoped to be able to learn something 
more particular respecting the trade of the country at 
that time. I knew indeed that later, after Psammeticus 
established a navy and made treaties with the Phoeni- 
cians and Grecians, the trade of Egypt also rose to a 
great height of prosperity. Having by the help of the 
Ionian and Carian pirates attained to the sole sove- 
reignty, this king from gratitude to the Greeks granted 
them different places in Lower Egypt — on both sides of 
the Nile, and particularly on the sea-coasts and the Pe- 
lusian mouths of the Nile — on w r hich they might erect 
their trading-houses. His successors, Necho and Amasis, 
made themselves still more deservedly illustrious on ac- 
count of commerce ; and the conquest of Cyprus by the 
latter laid the foundation for an Egyptian mercantile 
marine, as this island afforded a large supply of timber 
for ship -building, in which Egypt had before been very 
deficient. But the country reached to its highest point 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 173 

in trade under the Ptolemies, after Alexandria had been 
built on a spot most highly favorable and advantageous 
for the same. The three harbors of this city stood open 
to all sea-faring nations, which thus made it the central 
point into which was gathered all the various traffic of 
the then known world. King Ptolemy Lagus was so 
great a patron and favorer of navigation that at the 
court of Demetrius he was called only the admiral. He 
it was who erected a pharos, or light-tower, at Alex- 
andria, with the inscription — "To the god who cares for 
the safety of voyagers.'' The descriptions of the old 
historians are almost fabulous as to the gigantic ships 
which were built at that time and afterward. Plutarch 
relates of one which belonged to the fourth Ptolemy, 
that it was two hundred and eighty yards long, forty- 
eight yards high at the stern, and was manned by four 
hundred sailors, four thousand rowers, and carried also 
about three thousand soldiers. As to the articles of 
trade which were at that time exported from Egypt, I 
may mention especially the wheat, Egyptian flax and 
the famous Egyptian sail-cloth. Besides there was 
paper, for in the whole Roman Empire writing was 
executed only on Egyptian paper; and not till one of 
the Ptolemies, from displeasure at Eumenes, King of 
Pergamus, forbade the export of paper, was the art in- 
vented in Pergamus of preparing skins as writing ma- 
terial, and this substance was called JPergamena, parch- 
ment, after the city of that name. If we reckon with 
the above articles, also, the various fine wines which 
Egypt produced, especially in Marea and Sebennytus, 
and further, honey, precious stones, alabaster, porphyry, 
marble, granite, aluni, vitriol, soda, saltpetre, earthen- 
ware, carpets, cotton stuffs, glass and all sorts of color- 

15* 



171 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

ing-substances, which this land of marvels afforded, the 
products of trade must have been large ; and thus may 
be easily explained the elegance and lavish display 
which then prevailed in the courts of these Grecian 
kings. 

Such was the Egyptian traffic afterward ; but it must 
have been more restricted at the period in which Horus 
placed me in Memphis, especially as at an earlier date, as 
is well known, the inhabitants cherished a real dread of 
the sea and all extended sea-voyages. For this reason 
I went up to the Egyptian merchant, who stood serious 
and silent on one side, in order to engage him in con- 
versation. Perhaps I might enlarge my knowledge in 
this respect if I could get him to impart to me the 
account of his troubles. The attempt succeeded beyond 
my expectations ; the poor man was most cordial, and 
readily imagining the sympathy I had with him, gave me 
the following account of himself: — 

" As you know, to-morrow is the day of Osiris. Such 
festivals are also well-known to strangers, and because 
on them the people pour forth out of every region in 
order to take part in the sacrifices, processions and 
sports, so foreign merchants use this opportunity to be 
here with their wares and exchange them for Egyptian 
products. They come into this country mostly from the 
North or East, by ships or caravans; many, too, in whole 
companies, with camels, on which, besides the articles 
they wish to sell, they bring their tents and food. So 
they encamp around the cities, and people go out to 
them and exchange fgr whatever they want. The Phoe- 
nicians and Arabians particularly bring wine, for Egypt 
consumes more than she is in a condition to produce ; also 
oil, incense and timber ; for these they most gladly re- 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 175 

ceive from us flax, linen cloth, wheat, embroideries and 
other things. He whom you see there came early to- 
day with wine, grape-honey and raisins, and as on the 
feast to-morrow these will be much used by all, I hoped 
to carry on a good business if I made a bartering trade 
with him for some skins of wine. We were striking a 
bargain, and he maintained that every skin held twenty 
hins.* But I could not trust this unshaven, bearded 
stranger ; they are too much inclined to deceit in trade, 
and I desired, therefore, first to measure the contents. 
The skin which among many others I opened from his 
stock, contained only fifteen hins according to my 
measure. I accused him of cheating; he complained 
that I had taken for measuring a false and too large 
hin, in order to get the advantage of him, and so we 
both are here and shall lose all the profits of the 
market.'' 

Such was his story ; and I was sorry that I could not 
be present at the decision of the case. It would have 
been highly interesting for determining the old Egyp- 
tian measures. — "But what trade do the Egyptians carry 
on with each other ?" I further inquired. 

" Oh, our trade in the interior," he replied, "is very 
wide spread, and we do not give it up to the close-fisted 
foreigners, as our country produces richly almost every- 
thing which we need. The many canals that our kings 
have caused to be conducted through all Egypt are cer- 
tainly not merely designed to aid the cultivation and 

* The hin was an Egyptian as well as a Hebrew liquid measure. 
Names and things alike came from Egypt into the East. Compare 
De Wette's Lehr. der Judischen Archseologie, p. 229, and Seyffarth, 
Theologische Schriften der Alten iEgypter, Got ha. 1855, p. 118. The 
hin held three cans, or, according to the Rabbins, 30 egg shells. 



176 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

fruitfulness of the fields, but they were also without 
doubt to give facilities to the inland intercourse and ex- 
change of wares between the different cities and pro- 
vinces of the kingdom. Merchants and seamen are on 
this account most closely connected ; for the little, light 
Nile boats, made of gum-trees,* furnished with rudder 
and sail and moved forward by stout rowers, quickly 
carry the articles of traffic from one place to another. 
A great number of them to-day stopped near the city 
and brought in all sorts of wares necessary for the fes- 
tivals : such as cattle, wine, flowers, fruits, bread, beer 
and other things. My boat was laden with glass, stone 
and earthen vessels, and I wished in the morning to 
open my shop near the public square by the temple, 
and felt certain that in the games, the time of the 
banquet and the carousals that followed I should sell 
much, especially when at the same time I could have 
retailed the wine I had bought. But our laws of trade 
are strict, and by the quarrel into which I have fallen 
with this foreigner I shall lose all my expected profit. 
Were there not justice in the land, and did I not hope 
to be able to prove my innocence before the judges, I 
should have to fear that both my hands would be cut off 
as a falsifier of measures, "f 

As the unfortunate merchant with these words sunk 
into sorrowful reflections, and it was not possible for me 
to comfort him or to cheer him into a joyful mood, so I 
turned my eyes again to the single groups of soldiers, 
in one of which there had, at the same time, arisen a 
quarrel. The original cause, indeed, as in all such cases, 
was a trivial one, but since each of the parties thought of 

* Herod. II. 90, ek rf/g ciKav$r]Q, Mimosa Nilotica. 
| Diod. I. 78. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 177 

new wrongs, it grew continually more and more violent 
and important. The cause that gave rise to it was the 
joke of one of them about a beautiful slave whom the 
other loved. 

"And, I repeat," cried the first, aloud and heated, 
" I should think it base and ignoble to ask for the love 
of a slave-girl. She is forced to love you, but her heart 
does not feel it. Torn away from her country, her 
parents, her sisters, she has been sold here. Can any 
one buy love as we buy a skin of wine ? But you your- 
self are the son of a slave-woman, and who could ex- 
pect any noble feelings from you?" 

"The son of a slave-woman!" replied the other, in 
a rage. "And should that be a reproach? Don't you 
know that, according to a wise decision of the judges, 
our forefathers, the children of slave-women are, by the 
laws, of equal birth, and the worthy heirs of their 
fathers ?* Go and learn the laws of your own country 
before you undertake to contend with persons who are 
better taught. To what priest have you been to school? 
Have you ever learned to read and write ?"f 

" To read and write, and more yet !" replied the first. 
" I will show you what I have learned, and that I have 
learned how to handle a sword !" 

And he was about to rush to his arms, which lay on 
one side piled up with others. It was with effort he 
was held back and quieted ; but, at the same time, 
they agreed upon a meeting in the fencing-school, after 
the dismission of the watch by another division of the 
guard, to test in honorable combat their respective 
powers and skill. So, at least outwardly and for the 
moment, peace was restored in the hall. 

* Diod. I. 80. f Diod. III. 2. 



178 THREE BAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

Now began a new spectacle. The time for the dis- 
mission of the special watch in the royal palace had 
arrived, and they who were to take the places of the 
others were called off by name by the inferior offi- 
cer. Unwillingly and sullenly they arose ; for they 
would rather have remained with the wine and food, or 
still stretched themselves down to sleep, as the night 
was further advancing. But they were under a good 
discipline, and without saying a word to the contrary 
caught up their arms. Then they went out and unto 
their posts. 

Some of those who had been released and who came 
back brought news from the palace which they by 
chance had heard at their posts. In the opposite side- 
wing of the palace, in the dwelling of the royal steward 
and superintendent of the castle, for an hour past there 
had been shouting and rejoicing, as a lusty son had 
there made his appearance. One of the body-guard in 
that wing had learned of it from a slave-woman wiio 
was hurrying by, and now told to her friend as much as 
she knew of the matter. At the same time the horo- 
scope and astrologer had been sent for to cast the des- 
tiny of the new-born, and, as the temple was not far off, 
so this guard had soon seen the horoscope enter the 
abode of the happy father with his mathematical and 
astronomical instruments, and the astrologer with his 
thick rolls of books that contained the old astrological 
determinations ascribed to Thoth, and drawn out by 
Petosiris and Nekepso. 

There they still were, examining the positions and 
the decrees of the gods ; and the superstitious among 
the watch, full of expectation, were anxiously await- 
ing the declaration of the prophet, which they might 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 179 

learn in the same way through the gossiping servants. 
I must admit that I was less curious, as I belonged to 
the unbelievers. — The astrology of antiquity, indeed, 
rested on important truths. The visible and evident in- 
fluences which the sun and moon exercise over all nature, 
must have easily led to the belief that the other planets, 
and stars, too, might have a proportionate effect. The 
sun and moon wrought the most important changes in 
the great world, why not then in the little world — on 
men who were compounded out of the same elements ?* 
But even admitting an influence of the stars upon the 
world, yet could I never believe that the ancients had so 
accurately studied and proved it as to be able to deduce 
certain and unfailing conclusions from the various com- 
binations of their positions in respect to each other. In 
short my unbelief forced me to smile when I heard 
astrology mentioned, and thought of the destiny that 
would befall these reputed wise men, at that time the 
objects of wonder, and which they themselves, the an- 
nouncers of fate, had not yet dreamed of. I saw them 
carried over to Old Rome ; saw them there spending their 
lives, and derided by the Roman poets and philosophers ; 
prohibited by the Roman Emperors, with severe edicts, 
from the exercise of their art; I heard in spirit the 
warning of Horace not to give in to astrological calcu- 
lations ; heard the same post call the Circus Maximus 
a treacherous spot, because the soothsayers and astro- 
logers sat there and carried on their occupation. Thus 
as in many others, their knowledge of the stars and as- 
trology had Egypt for its native land, and borne out 
from thence into foreign countries, they exerted their 
influence in the East as well as in the West, and could 
* Firmicus, Libri. VIII. , matheseos, in the Third Book. 



180 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

neither, at any time, by ridicule nor by the severest pro- 
hibitions, be wholly crushed out and annihilated even up 
to the present day. There is something grand and over- 
powering in everything which comes out of this land of 
marvels ! 

In the midst of these and similar thoughts I had 
wholly forgotten my little conductor, who now softly 
touched me and called my notice to a cat w^hich boldly 
and skilfully crept down from off the window-sill of the 
hall. Courageously, and without the slightest fear of 
men, she looked down from thence with her shining eyes 
on the whirl of people below ; she appeared perfectly 
secure in the feeling of sacredness and immunity from 
all harm, which in its religious superstition the whole 
country bestowed on her race.* For the cat, a favorite 
of Isis, and of the goddess Pascht, the daughter of Isis, 
was a sacred and universally-honored animal; and the 
crime of injuring and harming such a one in any man- 
ner would have been punished most severely, and pro- 
bably even with death. It was a striking sight to be- 
hold how every soldier, as soon as she reached the floor 
rose up and reverentially gave place to her ; how even 
some of the pious placed their hands on their breasts, 
bent down low and whispered a silent prayer, while the 
animal, looking fearlessly around her, walked in slow 
and lengthened steps to the door. As they here knew 
from her piteous mewing that she wanted to go out into 
the air, the door w r as opened and the cat sprung forth. ( 18 ) 
Now again some seized their dice-cups or resumed their 
interrupted conversation, while most of them, tired and 
sleepy, lay down to rest, as midnight was not far off. 
Horus and I followed the example of these latter, and 
* Herod. II. 65-67. Diod. I. 83, 84. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 181 

in the same way as they, for they willingly lent us one 
of the instruments that they used as a sort of pillow for 
the head. This instrument — which I had already seen 
in the Egyptian Museum at Berlin, without having been 
able to explain its use — consisted of a wooden foot-stool, 
hardly a foot high, on which a semi-circular cross-piece 
of wood, hollowed on top, was fixed. For the officers 
it was cushioned ; the soldiers and we had to content 
ourselves with the simple wood'. After conveniently 
lying down on the back this instrument was placed under 
the neck, and served to keep the head in a somewhat 
higher position; and when I had folded together my 
mantle and thrust it under my head, and covered the 
wood too with one of its borders so as not to be hard, 
I found this kind of sleeping-stool not uncomfortable, 
though a German feather-pillow would have been prefer- 
able. But as I was tired, finally I went to sleep on an 
Egyptian soldier's board-pillow, and so ended my second 
day in Memphis. 

16 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A DREAM — OSIRIS — THE LAND OF THE BLESSED — 
SESOSTRIS — THE FEAST OF OSIRIS. 

The festivals which existed in Egypt, and which had 
before already appeared to me in dreams in the most 
brilliant light, were the birth-days of Osiris, Arueris, 
Typhon, Isis and Nepthys. With all of them, but espe- 
cially with the first, were associated for the Egyptian 
people the most sacred and sublime recollections and 
legends. When formerly, thousands of years ago, Osiris, 
the Sun-god, was born, a voice had been heard which 
proclaimed aloud that the Lord of all things had come 
into the light. It was likewise related that at Thebes 
a certain Pamyles, while drawing water, had heard a 
voice from the temple of Ammon which commanded 
him to announce the birth of the great king of the 
world — the beneficent Osiris, rich in blessing ; and on 
that account the feast was in after times called that of 
the Parnylise.* There were yet other festivals cele- 
brated in honor of the same Osiris which referred to his 
sufferings, his death, his coming again to life and 
sovereignty in the world below ; but the festival of his 
birth-clay was, and remained to all times, the highest 
and most sublime feast of joy, as in all the forms in 

* Plutarch, de Iside et Osiris, 12. Zeitschrift d. Deutsch. Morgenl. 
Gesellsch. VI. 2, p. 255. Todtenbuch, chap, cxlviii. 
182 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 183 

which he appeared among men he ever continued to be 
the true and immortal benefactor of the country. So 
in the beginning they honored in him the sun ; after- 
ward, on the other hand, the Nile, accordingly as they 
sometimes ascribed to the former or the latter the most 
beneficial powers and effects. The day of his birth — 
that on which the lord of all things, the great benefac- 
tor of the country, entered into the light — must accord- 
ingly be for the grateful Egyptians the object of the 
most holy reverence, and was on this account very often 
mentioned, praised and celebrated in their religious 
writings, while the birth-day of Typhon, under whose 
form and name were feared all noxious influences of 
nature, was more a day of sorrow and anxiety, in w x hich 
they gladly avoided undertaking any important business, 
because the hostile god would certainly turn all to ill 
luck. — In the night before the festival I had seen, 
among various other dream-pictures, a remarkable ap- 
pearance, of which I scarcely dared to maintain whether 
it was Osiris himself or my excited fancy had bewildered 
me. In spirit I saw myself amid the ruins of an old 
temple, and, most surprising, all appeared know T n to me 
as if I had never lived in any other region or in another 
clime, and as though I had hundreds of times wandered 
through the same rooms. They were the remains of the 
old temple of Osiris, at Abydos, which Memnon-Osi- 
mandyas had formerly built.* With feelings of wonder 
I walked through the ruins that had braved the destroy- 
ing tooth of time. Slowly I trod through the portico, 
sixty feet high, the pillars of which, set up in double 
rows, were covered from top to bottom with hierogly- 
phics. Then I entered the temple itself. The columns 
* These ruins are a mile from Girge, the capital of Upper Egypt. 



184 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

yet stood, the wall and the stone slabs fitted to each 
other over head, and which had formerly covered the 
whole. But already had foreign nations begun their 
work of destruction, searched for treasures and carried 
off the precious articles of furniture into far distant 
lands. The doors of the side-chambers were blocked up 
by heaps of rubbish, and from the subterranean rooms, to 
which broad stone-steps led down, thickly rose up noxious 
and stupefying exhalations which poisoned the air all 
around and rendered a further penetrating into them 
impossible. So I stood solitary, as if fixed by a curse, 
in the midst of the temple, before the motionless image 
of Osiris the poor Sun-god ! The enemy too had 
mutilated him; one foot dashed in pieces, one hand 
broken off lying on the ground, bore witness of the love 
of destroying by the later conquerors. 

Suddenly it was as though a fresh, mild breath of spring 
passed through the pillared hall, and all appeared to be 
changed as if by a stroke of magic. The rubbish and 
mold was gone, and the venerable temple anew upreared 
itself in its original splendor and glory. The lofty co- 
lumns, with their proud capitals imitating lotus-blossoms, 
the beautifully-adorned balcony, the thick walls smoothed 
and polished to the utmost, the steps laid with carpets, 
the parti-colored, richly-embroidered curtains, the pil- 
lars, obelisks and statues stood without injury and un- 
impaired as formerly. A tall, powerful human figure, 
with a double kingly crown on his head, around which 
played a golden gleam of light and irradiated all afar 
off, stepped forth from one of the side-chambers, with a 
firm tread advanced to meet me, and with solemn but 
benevolent voice asked me — "Whom do you seek here 
in this sanctuary?" 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 185 

"I was seeking Osiris," I answered, falteringly, 
"the old king of the land, the sovereign of the world 
beneath. I sought the temple where they once wor- 
shiped him and found only rubbish, mold and decayed 
walls ; sought the spirit of the Past and found the de- 
struction of the Present ; I sought a beneficent living 
god dispensing blessings, and have found only a muti- 
lated idol which the people derided.' ' 

" So thou, too, wouldst ridicule the spirit of the 
venerable Past !" answered the form of light. " Osiris 
lives, if not in his old temples yet in his original sym- 
bols ! Osiris lives so long as the sun completes his 
daily round ! I am the father of the gods ; I am the 
mother of the gods ; I am the god who has created the 
world, ivho delivers you from your sufferings — Osiris.* 
Every form under which men think of God is perishable 
and mortal. So too Osiris is dead with the people that 
adored him, but the spirit of light lives ever on in 
eternity ; so Allah, the god of Mohammed, who to-day 
rules my heritage and with bloody sword demands faith 
and obedience, will die and vanish from the earth with 
the whole host of his worshipers, until hereafter one 
name of the one God rules the whole world. But then 
also I shall yet live, and all nations will adoringly raise 
their eyes to the light of the sun ; for I am he who rules 
the old world, who holds command over hours, days, 
months and years, who calls forth the seed laid in the 
soil at its time in order that it may bear fruit and dis- 
pense food for man !" 

The form was gone ; the temple again was empty and 
decayed as at the beginning of the dream. Then I 
noticed before me, beneath the rubbish of the ruined 

* Todtcnbuch, cxlviii. 16. 
1 6* 



186 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

structure, a stone which bore a hieroglyphic inscription 
that referred to Osiris the Sun-god. It proved most 
clearly what I had just learned, that the old Egyptians 
under their Osiris honored not the great golden ball of 
fire which walks through the heavens, not a stone image, 
but rather a living, eternal divinity, who beneficently 
and a£ blessing them watches over men. It read : — 

" Osiris lives; he sees as ye see ; he hears as ye hear; 
he stands as ye stand; he sits as ye sit."* 

And on another mutilated stone Osiris spoke of him- 
self. "I am the Light, the son of Light; I dwell in the 
sublime land of light ; I am born in the land of light. "f 

And yet on a third I read the words : — 

" God enjoys the world of life ; Osiris enjoys himself 
in it as you rejoice yourselves of your life. "J 

I would gladly have further sought and deciphered 
what the old stones told of that time vanished away. 
But suddenly I felt myself borne upward as if carried 
by spirit-hands continually higher and higher, till the 
temple-structure beneath me finally vanished from my 
eyes ; clouds covered the earth, and I felt that I had 
entered into the heavenly heights. That was a new 
blessed life, not unlike the earthly, as the venerable 
priest had proclaimed it to the believing people. § Here 
also flowed a heavenly Nile covered with numerous 
boats ; here too the blessed, whom' Thoth the con- 
ductor of the dead had let in, ploughed, sowed, har- 
vested, threshed and finally brought a thank-offering 
to the mighty Nile-god. He was known by the bulrush 
belonging to him on his head; and an inscription affixed 

* Todtenbucli, I. 11, 12. f Ibid. I. 4, 5. J Ibid. III. 3. 

\ Todtenbucli, Plate XLI. Compare Seyffartli, Tlieol. Schriften der 
Alten iEgypter, p. 31. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 187 

to his throne-chair named him Hapi-Mou, the Father of 
the gods. In a fine harbor, which I reached as I was 
walking about, stood a costly boat whose bow and stern 
ran out at the point into a serpent's head. This boat it 
was on which the almighty Sun was wont to steer through 
the heavenly water. It bore the inscription — "Boat of 
the Sun-god, the king of the two worlds, (above and 
below the horizon,) who sails upon his boat to determine 
the times in the house of the world. "( 19 ) 

It was with me here as in the temple ; all came up be- 
fore me known and familiar, and many of the blessed, 
who were sauntering about, I could name and address 
by their titles. Here I saw the first king, Menes, 
who introduced religious customs and sacrifices into 
Egypt,* and for this reason was especially honored in 
the heavenly dwelling of the righteous. I saw Nitocris, 
who yet was radiant in the beauty of youthful bloom. 
I saw the kings under whom Joseph governed the realm 
and Moses led out his own people to the East. I saw 
all, only not those to whom, on account of a godless and 
unjust course of life, was forbidden in the earthly court 
of the dead an honorable burial of the corpse, and who 
hence w^ere also excluded from the heavenly kingdom. 
Among the most important of all, and surrounded by a 
splendid court-retinue, appeared to me to be Sesostris ; 
a tamed faithful lion was beside him as when he was in 
life. I ventured to address him to learn whether all 
which I had read respecting him and his warlike deeds, 
in later authors, was true, or what was well-founded 
and what might not be so. 

" That I was a grcnt king, and likewise a great con- 
queror," he began, with all that love of boasting and 

* Diod. T. 45. 



188 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

vainglory belonging to the Egyptians, "will be allowed 
me even by Osiris. The magnificent arrangements of 
the State, admired by all who visited Egypt, are my 
work. The distribution of the land into provinces and 
Nomes ; the regular administration of these by particu- 
lar governors and superintendents of the districts ; the 
collective military power ; the code of laws for the sol- 
diers ; many of the canals wdiich conduct the Nile into 
regions destitute of water, and also the dams that pre- 
vent the dangers of too great an overflow ; and in fine 
the measurement of the land and its proportional divi- 
sion among the obedient subjects, — these beneficial 
arrangements all owe their existence to me. I too un- 
dertook great war-expeditions, and sought in this to rival 
Osiris.* But I should certainly go too far if I wished 
to arrogate to myself all which later authors, and espe- 
cially the Greeks have related of me with especial 
praise. There w T ere great, perhaps greater, conquerors 
after me. I will only name the whole succession of the 
Ramses, w T hose warlike deeds are immortalized and pic- 
torially represented on innumerable monuments. f But 
the Greeks knew of and mentioned scarcely any Ram- 
ses ; all the deeds of these kings have been ascribed to 
my name, and so there has arisen a confusion which no 
investigator of antiquity of later ages can reduce to 
order. Even I myself hardly know where I was with 
my victorious army, w r hat nations I subjected, what 
cities I destroyed and spoiled of their treasures. When 
I went through the world it was so little known that it 
would be impossible for me to give you the present 

* Herod. II. 108. Diod. I. 57. JElian. Var. Hist, xii. 4, and 
xiv. 34. 

f Rosellini, Mon. Real. TIT. 2, Plates LXV.-CL. 



TIIREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 189 

names of the particular cities, mountains and rivers ; 
for, like all things, so do the names of regions change 
as soon as they are once laid waste, forsaken by their 
primitive inhabitants and come into possession of other 
nations. The period too when I lived, is to the people 
whose glory and flourishing state I once established an 
enigma.* Have they not often confounded me with this 
or that Ramses because too they were great conquer- 
ors ? Have not others likewise held me to be Sisak, 
who took and plundered Jerusalem in the days of Reho- 
boam ? No ! Believe me, I am much older ; not only 
older than the Assyrian king Ninus,f yes, older, much 
older ! One circumstance I recollect which I will im- 
part to you more fully. In the year before I began my 
great warlike expedition, while I was yet busied with 
the preparations of my army, about the vernal equinox, 
the priests and astrologers announced to me with great 
joy and solemnity a wonder which promised the best 
success for my undertaking. Suddenly, against expecta- 
tion, as they told it, came a beautiful bird from the East, 
even from the furthest India, to the City Heliopolis, 
and built for itself there a nest on a palm. A great 
number of other birds reverentially accompanied it on 
its flight. The incomparable bird, which they called 
Phoenix, then set fire to its nest and thus gave itself up 
to death. J But, oh ! a miracle ! from the ashes of the 
burned one rose up another Phoenix in the most beauti- 
ful bloom of its youth. — This wonderful event was cele- 
brated at that time, and as I have heard has been re- 
peated several times since, after a definite long course 
of years. ( 20 ) When now in the evening, I asked the 

* Boeckh, Manetlio, p. 296. Idclcr. Hermapion, p. 240, &c. 
f Justin, T. I. % Tacit. Ann. VI. 28. 



a 
e 

: 



' 



190 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

priests how the bird looked and what was its color, they 
mysteriously named it the Indian, a Son of Osiris, and 
the four-colored. Its golden and red feathers wer 
especially dazzling in the sun.* I eagerly desired t 
see him ; then the priest pointed silently toward the 
heavens, where no bird was to be seen, but thousands of 
stars were twinkling ; and so it was clear to me that un- 
der the whole mysterious narration of the astrologers 
was concealed an astronomical event which they neither 
wished to communicate and betray to me nor to any one 
else. If you can now," concluded Sesostris, "accu- 
rately learn from the priests what they understood b; 
the Phoenix, then will you thus easily be able, likewis 
to calculate and determine the epoch of my life."f 

Here ended my dream; and it may be said in passing, 
that during the feast I inquired of the priests of Helio- 
polis, who happened to be present, about the period of 
time according to the expiration of which the appear- 
ance of the Phoenix was wont to be repeated. But they 
could give me no definite -information. One named this, 
another that number, and Horus whispered to me de- 
ridingly in my ear, that they themselves did not know 
when the bird would appear ; and while they could not 
agree with themselves or with each other, sometimes the 
bird would come, and so be unexpected, since he from 
his own wondrous knowledge hits on the correct epoch. 
Then his arrival is immediately and solemnly pro- 
claimed and celebrated as one of the most important 
festivals.^ 

* Todtenbuch, iii. 3; xvii. 29; Ixxxiii. 2. Herod. II. 73. 
f As to the astronomical meaning of the Phoenix period, compare 
Thoth, p. 226. 

t .Elian. Hist, Anim. VI. 58. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 191 

Already early in the morning the music which poured 
into the hall of the guard-room from without awoke me. 
The clangor could not be called agreeable ; the noisy and 
tempestuous prevailed in it, which no doubt was to be 
ascribed to the musical instruments that were used in 
the festive processions in Egypt. Drums, fifes, tam- 
bourines, cymbals, trumpets, horns and other noisy in- 
struments played a large part therein. 

As soon as I had rubbed my eyes and had shaken off 
the different dreams of the night, Horus conducted me 
out in front of the door of the guard-room that we 
might see the festive march around of the priests. Im- 
mediately after the numerous bands of music, whose 
wild melodies had awakened me, followed the individual 
members of the priest-class, every one with his special 
insignia and badges. They walked past with an un- 
commonly venerable demeanor -in measured tread, their 
eyes directed steadily before them, neither wandering to 
the right or left, so that they appeared as though buried 
in deep reflection. Never during my three days' sojourn 
in Memphis did I see a priest laugh, rarely one smile ; 
and if this class of people was formerly so highly hon- 
ored, and almost adored, this is certainly in a great 
degree to be ascribed to the serious mien which its mem- 
bers knew how to assume as often as they appeared in 
public in the discharge of their official duties. Fore- 
most in the procession came the singer, with a musical 
instrument in his hands, and a roll of writing which con- 
tained the sacred songs to be used for the feast ; then 
followed the astrologer, who as the token of his official 
dignity bore a palm-branch, the symbol of the division 
of time,* and the so-called Horologe, a kind of indicator 
* Horapollo, Hieroglyph, I. 8, I. 



192 THREE DAYS IN MEM THIS. 

of the hours. For lie it was whose principal business 
consisted in the observation of the stars and the astro- 
nomical, chronological and astrological calculations con- 
nected therewith. Behind followed with gravity the 
sacred scribe, with the ostrich feather on his head and 
a book-roll and writing instruments in his hands. — The 
next that succeeded, the Stolist, as a sign of his dignity 
bore a censer and a measuring-wand, the symbolic re- 
ference of which to the duties of his office, especially as 
to the wand, it is easy to recognize. The Stolist was 
not only intrusted with the clothing and decoration of 
the statues of the gods, but he was likewise especially 
the arranger of the festival and procession, and he had 
therefore to watch that in the festivities, sacrifices and 
processions, everything should take place properly ac- 
cording to the prescriptions and laws laid down in the 
particular books. The yard-wand therefore undoubtedly 
indicated here that he should suitably proportion all the 
transactions, usages and ceremonies. Finally followed 
the Prophet as I have already several times sketched 
him.* Those hitherto named appeared to be the most 
respectable members of the priestly-class ; to them were * 
directly joined a great number of the servants of the 
temple, who partly led sacrificial animals and bore other 
articles necessary for the offerings. From the great 
number I will only notice particularly the following: — 
Immediately after the prophet came at least twenty 
Pastophori, some with little shrines or chapels dedicated 
to Osiris ; others with small handsomely-decked images 
of Osiris, and finally yet others dragging forward a 
large statue of Osiris by ropes attached to a sort of 

* As to this order of succession in the procession, compare Clemens 
Alexandrinus, VI. 268, and Wilkinson, Plate LXXVI. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 193 

sledge. The larger, as also smaller statues, were clad 
in costly robes, and adorned with flowers, garlands, 
chains and bands ; the robes on the sun Osiris were red, 
as the morning-dawn which daily announces his com- 
ing ;* this was the only color which I noticed in them ; 
no other might be used as the ornament of the Sun- 
god ; the shrines were partly of variegated woods and 
richly-adorned, and partly of stone. Apis also was in 
the procession, for, according to the belief of the people, 
he was the abode of the soul of Osiris ;f he was slowly 
and carefully led with a costly rein by his special keepers 
and servants. Then followed the sacrificing priests, the 
so-called Moschosphragists, who have to seek out the 
appropriate beasts for offerings and to provide them 
with a seal in confirmation of their fitness. At this 
time they led only swine, as the designated feast-day 
of Osiris or Dionysos was peculiar for this reason, — that 
merely swine, and especially young pigs, were brought 
as an offering to him, not merely publicly, but also by 
every private man. Only the very poorest contented 
themselves, instead of living animals, with those that 
were formed and kneaded out of dough. J Others still, 
finally brought up the whole procession, who bore sacri- 
ficial vessels filled with wine and milk, as these liquids 
likewise were copiously dispensed to the gods.§ 

But after all these different orders of priests had 
passed, the streets for a long time were not yet free so 
as to allow us to join the procession. Now followed 
some divisions of soldiers, with slow music and in slow- 
measured march ; and then, finally, a vast, countless 
number of people, who crowded on as in Catholic coun- 

* Plutarch, in Osir., 51, 78. f Diod. I. 85. 

J Herod, II. 47, 48. g Wilk. II. 2, pp. 865, 866. 

17 



194 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

tries, after the crucifix ; so here, after the image of 
Osiris and the Apis. All castes were here mixed up to- 
gether ; even the so-much-hated and despised swine- 
herds I saw here to-day in the midst of the throng, as 
they also had presented beasts for sacrifice, and would 
afterward receive again the slaughtered flesh as a pre- 
sent. But yet we could observe the aversion among the 
people that was universally felt toward the swine-herds. 
They anxiously sought to avoid them and to keep 
away from them just as we give the way to a chimney- 
sweep or miller's boy from the fear that we may be 
soiled by contact with them. To-day, however, they 
allowed them a place in their midst, while else their 
avoidance of them was so great that none of them would 
enter a temple nor dared to contract any relationship 
by marriage w T ith one of another caste ; and the slightest 
touch from one of the unclean beasts they herded was 
so great a contamination that those who met with this 
misfortune were bound immediately to dash into the 
Nile and purify themselves according to the laws of 
religion.* 

So rolled slowly onward the procession, in which we 
both finally mingled, amid the shouts of the people, 
until it reached the large open place of which I have 
already spoken and which extended out before the 
temple of Ptah. Here a number of the members of 
the other priesthoods were gathered, and among these 
Horus pointed out to me Sesom, almost a hundred years 
old, whose life and deeds he had related the day before. 
He lay on a white cushion, in a sedan, which his ser- 
vants had brought thither ; for as my little guide in- 
formed me, he was crippled in both of his feet. But in 
* Herod. II. 47. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 195 

the body, destitute of motion, almost dead, there yet 
lived a proud lofty commanding spirit, which sparkled 
out of his dark eyes, and by all who passed before him 
there was paid him a reverential greeting and a low 
bowing down. 

I had placed myself with Horus on one of the highest 
steps of the temple, from which we could overlook the 
whole open space lying before us, in the midst of which 
was the sacrificial altar, and where the sacred cere- 
monies were to take place. Those who bore part in the 
procession placed themselves around the altar decked 
with flowers, and encircling these a chain, forming a 
square, was drawn by the soldiers posted so as to keep 
off the people crowding in from curiosity. The par- 
ticular festivity, with its prayers, sacrifices and gifts, 
had little interest for me, as I had already seen similar 
ones in the past days ; I longed for the peculiar popular 
festivals which should exhibit the otherwise sober and 
morose Egypt in its joy and license.* But it did not yet 
take place. After the signal had been given by a horn 
for the beginning of the feast, and a universal silence 
had taken place, the singer came up to the altar in order 
to recite publicly the well-known hymns to Osiris. For 
though he bore in his hands, and must do so in all fes- 
tive processions, the two rolls of books, of which one 
was songs in honor of the gods and the other a sketch 
of the royal life, yet it was his particular business to 
know them perfectly by heart, and be able to rehearse 
them in public, f During his half-sung half-spoken ad- 
dress, universal silence reigned ; only certain single pas- 
sages, full of the subject, that always returned at definite 

* Ammianus Marcellinus, B. XXII., and Herod. II. GO. 
f Clemens of Alexandria, ut supra. 



196 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

intervals, and formed a sort of refrain, were repeated 
aloud and spoken after him by the priesthood and the 
people. The first one I call to mind even to this day ; 
it ran thus : — 

" I sing the works of the Lord, which quickens my 
heart so long as I walk in the house of the Lord."* 

After this the liquids mentioned were poured out as 
libations on the altar by the high-priest. Then the great 
statue of the god was set up, and the sacrifice began by 
the priests especially called to it. The swine, the feet 
of which had been tied together, were slaughtered ; their 
entrails taken out and then the heads cut off. These 
heads of the sacrificial animals correspond in a certain 
degree to the scape-goat among the Hebrews, which, as 
is well-known, was laden with all the sins of the people 
on the great day of atonement and driven into the 
wilderness ; so here the head of the animal for offering 
was laden by the Egyptian priests w T ith curses and im- 
precations. The high-priest spoke over it the following 
words : — " If any misfortune is coming upon the land, 
let it be averted and fall on this head !" — This head was 
then, as Herodotus relates, borne away and cast into the 
Nile ; at a later time, when foreigners, and especially 
Greeks had gained an entrance into the country, it w T as 
sold in the commercial cities. 

While I followed with anxious observation this scene 
of imprecation, I felt myself suddenly surrounded by an 
exceedingly strong, intoxicating odor, and turning my- 
self almost involuntarily toward the temple, I saw a 
thick cloud of smoke pressing through it, which soon 
wholly covered us. Horus, who remarked my astonish- 
ment, at once readily explained to me this new appear- 
* Todtenbuch, I. 22. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 197 

ance. " They are burning incense/' said he, "in the 
temple, with Kyphi, well known to you certainly by 
name. The preparation of this incense according to 
rule, is no easy matter, and is a particular secret of the 
temple-servants assigned to the duty. Sixteen different 
substances must be mingled for it in equal proportions. 
I will try to enumerate them in your own language. 
For this purpose they take honey, wine, resin, galgant,* 
turpentine, myrrh, aspalathus, i.e. a thorny shrub which 
affords a kind of oil like your oil of roses, also stone- 
clover, the gum mastic, or as the botanists call it, of the 
Pistacia lentiscus, asphalt, fig-leaves, sorrel, berries of 
the large and small juniper, a kind of root which the old 
Greeks called 'kardamon,' and finally, kalmus.f All 
these put together furnish an incense which is daily 
used to purify and consecrate the air of the temple, and 
thus likewise promote the health as well as serve and 
please the gods. But as to the name the Greeks have 
so corrupted and distorted, it is to be expressed not pro- 
perly by Kyphi, but by Schobe." 

As soon as the cloud of incense had somewhat passed 
away, in the distance, on the extreme and opposite side 
of the open space, a new and unexpected spectacle pre- 
sented itself to me. These were the embassadors of 
various subject-tribes, who at the close of the year 
brought their tributes in the manifold natural products 
of their country, and marched with them slowly and 
solemnly, almost unmarked and disregarded by others, 
to the king's palace, there to deliver them to the Royal 
Intendant, who with numerous secretaries took an ac- 

* Maranta Galanga, Lin., yet known by its balsamic resin and 
ethereal oil, which is extracted by means of spirits of wine, 
f Plutarch, de Iside et Osiri, chaps, lii. and lxxxi. 

17* 



198 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

curate reckoning of them. The white complexion, dress 
and growth of hair of these new-comers, showed them 
clearly to be foreigners and Asiatics. The leader who 
marched at their head bore a club, bow, shield and 
lance ; a musician with a seven-stringed lyre and the 
plectrum followed him. Others bore gold and silver 
vessels, baskets of fruits of all kinds, and also as a pre- 
sent of honor to the king splendid weapons and arms ; 
captured animals likewise, as for example a gazelle, ap- 
peared in the procession.* It was certainly only by ac- 
cident that there was on this day present another depu- 
tation belonging to another nation, which followed 
immediately after the first. They were Mauritanians, 
of a somewhat clearer complexion than the Egyptians, 
and beardless. t They wore a hair-net and a short, 
girded garment, and brought as presents to the king 
giraffes, ostriches, rock-goats, monkeys, ostrich eggs 
and feathers. Horus named this people Punt, and on 
this I involuntarily thought of the Phut of the Bible, 
whom Jeremiah (xlvi. 9) mentions as bearers of shields 
in the army of Pharaoh-Necho. 

When the procession to which I had exclusively turned 
my attention had passed by, then the sacrificial solemni- 
ties concluded with a prayer were also finished, and 
now began the festival-sports which I had with longing 
expected. The priests marched back into the holy 
place of the temple, whither no one might follow them, 
and thus it remained hidden from me what they did 
there in the further course of the day. For with anxious 
carefulness the priests at all times sought to keep far 

« Rosellini, Monum. Storici. III. A. p. 48, &c. 

f Bimseivs .Egvptens Stelle in dor Weltgeschichte, II. S. 323, and 
the places there cited. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 199 

away every uninitiated person from their mysteries, and 
for this purpose invented a sacred legend to affright the 
curious. They related that there was once a man who 
had in no wise the privilege of going into the temple, 
yet crept in by stealth, and was therefore punished for 
his curiosity ; for having cast a look behind the curtain 
of the most holy place, he had seen all there full of 
terrific images and apparitions, and after giving an ac- 
count of it to others he suddenly died. 

Scarcely had the priests disappeared than with an 
almost fabulous hurry and quickness everything was re- 
moved by the servants of the temple that had been used 
for the sacrifice, and immediately all was gone that 
could bear witness to what had been already done. The 
open space was cleared out, strewed with fresh sand 
and prepared for the sports of combat, which were now 
held without any decoration, w r hile at a later period 
probably an arena was erected, with seats for the spec- 
tators. Strabo, at least, relates the following particu- 
lars : — " On this open space hear the temple of Vulcan, 
in Memphis, there is a colossus made of a single stone. 
In this space too are held bull-fights ; the bulls are 
specially trained for it as a man trains a horse. Set 
loose they meet in combat. The victor receives a prize.' ' 
Such a bull-fight it was that next presented itself to my 
sight. Two powerful, courageous bulls, one of which 
was black, the other speckled, were brought in. Their 
two leaders, who without doubt belonged to the herds- 
men-caste, were clad only w T ith a common linen apron 
and armed with long and thick clubs. After they had 
placed the animals eager for the fight opposite to each 
other, at about the distance of six paces, they were set 
loose. Furious they dashed against one another, assault- 



200 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

ing each other with their horns ; as often as one was 
tired, or was forced by the impetuous shock of his ad- 
versary to turn about in flight, he was driven on anew 
from his master by blows of his club. When they would 
no more obey the cudgel an iron point was fixed on it, 
and with this the poor beasts were pricked from behind 
in the back.* The fight did not end till one of the two 
combating beasts sunk down with shattered skull and 
ripped-up belly, and dying reddened the sand with his 
blood. A tempest of applause by the people, as if un- 
willing to stop, was the only reward for the master of 
the victor-beast, unless some other awaited him ; for I 
saw several scribes with their writing-materials sitting 
on the lowest steps of the temple, who were busy in 
noting accurately the course of every game of combat. 
Both of the herdsmen likewise deserved praise and ad- 
miration, as not seldom the furious animals had turned 
against their masters, and they could then only defend 
themselves and save their threatened lives by the great- 
est skill and adroitness. Less dangerous were the gym- 
nastic and warlike exercises that now followed. The 
young sons of the soldiers also must contribute their 
share to the general pleasure of the assembly. For 
the most part they were young persons of between six- 
teen and twenty years of age, who exhibited splendid 
proofs of the skill which they had acquired in the wrest- 
ling and fencing schools. They fought with wooden wea- 
pons only, but with these they could have easily injured 
each other, had they not understood how to catch every 
stroke dexterously on their wooden shields covered with 

* Representations of bull-fights are to be found in the sepulchral 
chambers of Thebes and Beni-Hassan. Compare Wilk. II. 444 to 
the end. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 201 

leather. I saw only a few bloody heads, and every cut 
which was made was greeted by the people with laughter, 
humbling and causing shame to him who was hit. If, 
as was often the case, their sw^ords were broken in pieces 
in the single fight, their weapons were cast away, and 
then began a wrestling which was not regarded as ended 
till the overthrow of one and the complete victory of the 
other of the two.* Then every time the vanquished 
must withdraw, while the conqueror kept the field of 
battle and another opponent came forth to meet him. 
I saw some who remained victors ten times and more in 
succession before they had to yield to a stronger and 
more accomplished antagonist. Thus the fight con- 
tinued for an hour, and many an old bearded soldier 
stood among the spectators and with sparkling eyes 
silently rejoiced over the address and most promising 
bravery of his young son. At the conclusion, round 
wooden disks were brought in and placed on poles, at 
which the soldiers might shoot with their arrows and 
hurl their spears. An elegant silver cup was the prize 
of the one who in a certain number of shots hit the 
mark the oftenest. 

But the sun already stood high in the heavens 
and sent down his glowing rays, which were reflected 
from the flat stone-steps of the ascent to the temple 
with redoubled violence, and thus made a longer stay 
impossible for one from the North. "Let us go under 
the tent and to the river," said Horus, and drew me 
forth with him ; "there we shall find a jubilee, joy and 
refreshing which we so much need." So we left the 
place of combat. 

Beneath the tents at the river the little fellow said 
* Leipzig Illust. Zeitung, Band, VII. 1852, p. 331, &o. 



202 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 



ras; 
has 



we should find jubilee and joy. And so indeed it was 
for here was the proper popular festival. Whoever 
hot once had an opportunity to be in Leipzig or some 
great city of traffic to visit a fair, and there on the dif- 
ferent market-places to notice under the tents and in 
the shops the business, the crowds and the amusements 
of the visitors, can with difficulty form a correct and 
perfect idea of this fair of Osiris. Already the yearly 
torrents of rain had begun in Upper Ethiopia and 
brought in a swelling of the Nile ; already some fields 
in its neighborhood were overflowed, from which the 
higher-situated country-houses of the region around up- 
reared themselves as islands. Here on the waves of the 
black river, as it was called by almost all the old na- 
tions,* sported thousands of gondolas and pleasure- 
boats, which were all decorated in the most festive 
manner by variegated bands, curtains and garlands of 
flowers. As on a Corso in the lagunes of Venice, the 
Egyptians, men and women variously intermingled, 
sailed back and forth, courteously greeting each other 
when they met with friends or kindred. They had 
music, they sung, they danced, they drank on the 
boats. f Many of those also whom I had become ac- 
quainted with on the former days I saw fly by in their 
barks, and called out to them a friendly salutation, 
which they also kindly returned. The young man whom 
I had met hunting on the second day, and who had so 
kindly shown me his father's estate and had returned me 
to Memphis, also shot his boat toward the land at the 
place where we stood observing, and invited us to mount 

* Diodorus calls it OJceame, the Chaldeans Ukkam, and this is the 
Egyptian word Ukame, or Black. 
f Herod. II. 60. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 203 

his boat and contemplate the wild whirl still closer ; but 
I did not dare to give myself into the vortex where 
innocent joys were interchanged by wild pleasure, 
friendly jokes with indecent scoffs and vulgarities, quiet 
laughter with the most unrestrained mirth and excess ; 
and in all this dissipation the women, who had for a long 
time rejoiced in the feast-days as days of freedom and 
license, took the liveliest part.* 

Under the tents and huts which stretched like a long 
street on the high-situated bank we met the same un- 
bridled license. Most of the tents were consecrated to 
Ceres and Bacchus. Wine, beer, cakes and different 
baked articles, eggs, honey, figs, dates, melons, pome- 
granates, grapes, onions and other products of the 
country were presented in rich abundance. In another 
tent warm food was spread out, prepared near it on simple 
hearths formed of three stone slabs. We contented our- 
selves with tasting the various fruits, and ate some wheat- 
bread ; then desirous of a drink of foreign wine I entered 
with Horus into a drinking saloon which, standing here 
and there, were easily to be distinguished from the other 
shops by the noise that burst forth from them. The 
view which the inside of the first tent offered was in- 
describably disgusting. It appeared to be filled only by 
persons of the lowest class, but even in these I should 
have expected more propriety and sense of shame. Sit- 
ting partly on low benches, partly lying about on the 
ground, they gave themselves to the utmost licentious- 
ness; and even, the drunken, noisy women whom we 
looked at, expecting that exhausted and no longer capa- 
ble of controlling their feelings they would sink down 

* Herod, as above. 



204 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 



into a corner, were no uncommon spectacle.* While 
with us the glow of fiery wine, moderately enjoyed, red- 
dens the cheeks, and hence an otherwise pale face may 
sometimes be disfigured, with these dark-complexioned 
Egyptian women it showed its effects especially in their 
lips and eyes : the lips and eye-lids were swelled up, the 
eyes became piercing and rolled around like balls of fire 
in their sockets, — it was the picture of the Furies as they 
mounted from their home in hell in order to torture and 
persecute the evil-doers on earth. 

But there was yet one scene which caused me to re- 
main a few minutes among this coarse multitude of the 
populace. On one side of the tent particularly all crowded 
around a magician, who by his arts of juggling excited 
the highest astonishment of the spectators and gained 
many a treat for himself. On a low table behind which 
he stood, he placed two little cups and covered each 
one of them with a larger. When he again lifted off 
the latter the first and smaller one had disappeared. 
Now he placed the larger' one again upon the table after 
he had shown that there was nothing hidden under it. 
But oh, wonderful ! he made one of those present raise 
up one of the cups and there stood the little one under 
it ; then he raised this, under which was found a smaller, 
and so on till the whole table was filled with cups of 
different sizes. All these cups were placed with the 
edge turned down in a row on the table ; the conjuror 
asked for a ring and seized his magic wand. " Under 
which cup shall the ring lie?" he asked the spectators. 
" Under the smallest !" all cried, with one voice. Then 
he threw the ring into the air, it disappeared as a flash 

* Wilk. II. 168, &c. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 205 

of lightning from our eyes, and was found again under 
the cup pointed out.* 

Although we are accustomed to such a sleight of a 
practiced hand exciting astonishment, by our jugglers, 
yet the Egyptian conjuror awakened the greatest at- 
tention and the highest surprise ; and while on the 
other side of the tent the noise increased every mo- 
ment, all around him reigned astonishment and silence. 
Breathless the spectators looked at him and his hand 
practiced in the art, and scarcely ventured to speak a 
word for fear of disturbing and causing displeasure 
to the divinity, w T hich appeared to work through and 
in him. The juggler too left them in this belief; the 
superstition of the Old Egyptians at that time was great 
and powerful, and not only priests and lawgivers, but 
also impostors, conjurors and other jugglers, whose 
knowledge and arts appeared inexplicable and super- 
natural to the astonished multitude, might openly and 
without apprehension of danger exhibit and boast of the 
aid of a divinity. 

After we had seen and admired some other tricks of 
his art we left the tent to seek out for ourselves a more 
respectable society. We went through the shops, many 
of which, besides the kinds of food before mentioned, 
contained also other articles on sale, and found eager 
venders, and reached a larger tent in which a great 
number of respectable Egyptians had assembled. Be- 
fore it various pole-balancers and jugglers exhibited 
their arts, accompanied by a band of musicians with 
noisy music, and sometimes interchanged with the 

* Minutoli, Social Sports and Gymnastic Exercises of the Old 
Egyptians, in the Leipzig Illus., Zeitung, 1852, p. 831. 

18 



206 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

dances of lovely foreigners who betrayed an Eastern 
origin. These dancers were wild and passionate, such 
as we may see in the East at the present day. There 
were not only dances, but dramatic and pantomimic 
representations of the various feelings and passions, in 
which not only the feet but also the hands and features 
of the countenance were brought into action. The 
airiness of these female dancers in all their motions 
was extraordinary ; wondrous was the quickness with 
which they knew how to change their features accord- 
ing as they wished to express joy or sorrow, pleasure 
or grief, desire or indifference. The voluptuousness of 
their postures might sometimes, according to our ideas, 
exceed all bounds ; but while the looks, movements, 
and in short all in them spoke a language too evident 
to be mistaken, they presented an indescribably lovely 
picture that will never indeed be effaced from mj 
memory.* 

In the tent itself into which we next entered to r 
fresh ourselves by a cup of good wine, brought into 
the country by foreign traders, sat soldiers, artists and 
merchants in a parti-colored mixture, busied in eating, 
drinking and gaming. Especially the dice were agoing, 
as on the evening before at the watch-house, and many 
a large sum, many a costly estate, were staked on a 
single throw. At many tables sat in pairs opposite 
each other a party playing draughts. The stones, in 
the form of our wedge, were white and black, or red 
and black, and were pushed back and forth on a square 
tablet divided out by lines according to the rules of the 
art.f The players were so engaged and buried in the 

* Wilk. II. 301, 329. 

f Wilk. II. 448, &c, and Minutoli, at supra. 



i 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 207 

game that they rarely raised their eyes, fixed on the 
table, to cast a glance at the assembly or take a drink 
from their cups. They seldom also spoke, and then 
only to make a remark as to one and another turn of 
the play. If in the first tent I had been driven away by 
the dissipation and noisy tumult of the company, here, 
on the contrary, I felt myself restrained and distressed 
by an almost unearthly stillness and repose. As Ave 
had no wish to take part in the games or remain idle 
spectators, when, after a few moments, we had eaten 
and drank and refreshed ourselves, we had nothing more 
to see here. We therefore soon went again out into 
the open air, and took our way anew through the ever- 
increasing whirl of human beings. 

On an open square, which we finally reached, were 
at least forty respectable young women assembled en- 
joying themselves at ball-play or throwing hoops. For 
the ball-play — which I had often already seen repre- 
sented in pictures, and that may be seen at the present 
day in the grotto of Beni-Hassan — in all Ancient Egypt 
was only a play for females, who threw back and forth 
to each other parti-colored leather balls, caught them 
again, and sought to surpass one another in both kinds 
of skill, especially in the height and distance of the 
throw.* In the same way as with us too they threw 
the hoops, which were wound about w T ith elegant rib- 
bons ;f and the pleasure and joy which shone forth in 
these gymnastic plays, their sportive jokes and merry 
springing, dissipated the unpleasant impression which 
their well-known and already-mentioned ugliness had 
produced upon me. But my little conductor left me 
* Wilk. II. 429, 430, 432. f Minutoli, ut supra. 



208 THKBB PAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

a Bhort time only for observation; anxiously and impa- 
tiently he drew me further on and forth from the wild, 
furious activity of the popular festival. I- 1 ) Keeping 
the Nile always on the right and the oast, toward which 
side it here bounded the city, we walked ahead with 
rapid step. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE PYRAMIDS — THE FAREWELL. 

While my little conductor talked with me about one 
person and another known to me, and sometimes told 
me of the different princes who had built the city of 
Memphis, and especially the well-known temple of Vul- 
can, and beautified and enlarged it,( 22 ) sometimes prais- 
ing the wisdom of the first founder, who, by the forma- 
tion of dams and canals, regulated the overflow and 
gained the greatest merit on account of the fertility of 
the soil, we withdrew ourselves further and further from 
the noise and tumult of the festival, and were recalled 
to it only here and there by a Nile-bark gliding past, 
which was bringing in new participants and guests from 
cities situated in the North. Joyous laughter, merry 
jokes and music resounded over to us from them; and 
if by chance they saw us walking off, we were also not 
secure from their raillery and jibes, to which they 
usually added an invitation to come into the bark and 
return back to the festival.* But Horus always replied 
to them with like jokes, and they let us go quietly on 
our way. I soon noticed that the ground was more 
elevated, and that gradually we ascended one of those 
dams the first formation of which tradition ascribes to 
Menes. After we had walked about a mile we found 
ourselves high above the water-level, and now my con- 

* Herod. II. 60. 

18* 209 



1210 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 






ductor, who had hitherto sought to divert me by conver- 
sation of all kinds, proposed to me to take a look back- 
ward to the region lying on the South. 

It was the last look which was permitted me on the 
old land of the Pharaohs. Before me at my feet lay a 
once-mighty royal city with her temples and palaces, 
which have been destroyed for centuries ; whose ruins 
in the invasion of the Islamites into Egypt have been 
converted into building-materials for the new city of 
Cairo on the opposite side of the river ; whose last re- 
mains and foundation-walls have become covered with 
the mud of the Nile and withdrawn from the view of 
the world. But there yet remains one thing that testi- 
fies even at this day to the power and greatness of the 
former kings of Memphis — the Pyramids which rose on 
my right hand, and on this side of the land of Joseph, 
with their outlines sharply defined on the horizon. With 
what anxious care for the imperishableness of their 
earthly bodies, with what outlay of expense and lives 
of men the old Pharaohs built them, prepared in them 
a little sepulchral chamber for themselves that might not 
only remain secluded from the air but also from the curi- 
osity and love of destruction of later centuries ! And yet 
the desire of knowledge respecting them of the last ce: 
tury again found out their walled-up and. hidden e 
trances, penetrated into the dark passages and galleries, 
and has drawn forth from the deep chambers coffins and 
mummies into the daylight. Walk in thither, proud 
man ! confess thy feebleness, and gain the conviction 
that the work of man is a perishable thing. Until a re- 
quickening at some future time, after a long wandering 
and purification of their souls for thousands of years, the 
kings hoped to rest here undisturbed in their tombs. 



et 

: 



T J I B E E D A I S I N M E M P H 1 0* 211 

and now they are torn out and scattered over the world 
to be exposed to the eyes of the curious multitude. 

Horns pointed with his hand over to the largest and 
highest pyramid. " There, in that," said he, " reposed 
Suphis, one of the first builders of the pyramids, whom 
our historian Manetho has placed far before the times of 
the great Sesostris.* It is almost five hundred feet 
high ; its entrance, as in all' of them, is on the north 
side, yet not exactly in the middle, hut somewhat to the 
east. It stands on a level rocky-bottom, by which it 
gains considerably in height. On the south and east 
sides there are certain large temple-edifices belonging to 
it which are covered up and not visible from the point 
where we stand. The pyramid itself contains in its in- 
side one subterranean chamber above a hundred feet be- 
low the surface of the ground; a sepulchral chamber for 
the queen, the spouse of the builder; and finally a third, 
some two hundred feet above the before-named, in which 
stands the sarcophagus of the king.*}* To all these rooms 
steps and galleries, mounting upward and outward, for- 
merly led, but which immediately after the deposit of 
the dead were filled and Availed up with stones, so that, 
as you know, but a short period before your time there 
has been no success in discovering it, or by hewing out 
the stone to re-open it.' 7 

"Is it true," I interrupted him, "that the builders of 

* Manetho, according to Syncellus, says of the kings of the fourth 
Dynasty: — "The third was .Suphis ; he built the greatest pyramid, 
which Herodotus ascribes to Cheops, lie wan a despise? of the gods," 
&c. The Egyptian name of the builder is Chufu, of which Manetho 
has made Suphis, and Herodotus Cheo] 

f An accurate description may he found in Bunsen's "JEgypten's 
Stelle in der Weltgeschichte," II. p. 149, kc. 



212 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

the pyramids were so hated by the people that they only 
unwillingly spoke their names?" 

"With some this was indeed the case," replied Horus; 
" and this evil reputation has been propagated even to 
the latest times of the kingdom, so that the Greeks 
traveling to Egypt heard of it and related it in their 
writings. But remember too Avhat forces they must 
have employed for these huge structures, which properly 
had no other object than to receive their mummies to 
secure them from corruption. The builder of the largest 
pyramid was a cruel and tyrannical monarch. Yes ; he 
went so far in his godlessness that he shut up the tem- 
ples of the country and forbade the sacrifices and usages 
of religion, in order that all the people might labor with- 
out interruption for himself only. Many drops of sweat, 
many tears has this mighty structure witnessed, many 
sighs, many a curse has it heard. While some had to 
hew out the stones in the quarries in the Arabian moun- 
tains, others brought them to the Nile, where they were 
again carried over by yet others, and so brought on this 
side of the river to the place of their destination. Aside 
from these laborious works and the long time in which 
they were hewing out the subterranean chambers and 
passages in the rock, twenty years w T ere spent simply in 
building the pyramid. When Herodotus visited the 
country it was related to him that, according to an old 
inscription, the cost of furnishing the laborers with ra- 
dishes, garlics and onions merely, amounted to a million 
and a half of dollars,* and he justly cries out, 'If this 
cost so much how much must the other food, with the 
clothes for the workmen and the iron tools, have cost ?'f 
* Six hundred talents of silver. f Herod. II. 125. 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 213 

Under the following kings likewise the oppression of the 
people continued on, and Mcncheres, or Mycerinus, first 
gained for himself the thanks of the people and the 
name of Holy. He opened the temples and again 
allowed the celebration of the various festivals. He in- 
deed built himself a pyramid, but without torturing his 
subjects and forcing them to hard bond-service, and so 
he remained to the latest time in songs and odes of the 
people as a favorite, and is frequently named and glori- 
fied in the sacred hymns."* 

"And had then these colossal structures, the pyra- 
mids, really no other object than merely to conceal 
the mummy of a king?" I asked, as have many anti- 
quarian investigators of older or later times. 

"What object else could they have had?" said Horus, 
astonished at this to him unexpected question. "Do 
you think they were for astronomical observatories be- 
cause their four sides were accurately turned to the four 
quarters of the world ? Then they certainly would not 
have been crowded together near Memphis alone in such 
numbers, but would be found in other parts of the king-' 
dom, and especially at Heliopolis, whose priests from 
ancient times have been famous for their astronomical 
knowledge. Their tops also would have been accessible, 
while most of them are laid above with flat, polished 
stones, and cannot be ascended. Or could they be sym- 
bolic representations of the realm of shades and the life 
after death, as some have supposed ? Why are they then 
not to be found in all Egypt ? And wherein consists 
the similarity of the symbolic image with the object 
symbolized ? And as they are likewise walled up and 

* Todtcnbuch, LXIV. 31. 



214 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

their entrances closed, wherefore a symbol that was in 
a state to make no impression on the observer ? For 
a similar reason, because they were inaccessible they 
could not have been designed for priestly consecrations 
and other services of divine worship. — I know indeed 
that posterity have also supposed them to be store- 
houses for grain, and those even which the Israelites 
must have built during their residence in Egypt. But 
you cannot believe anything of the kind, since the pyra- 
mids" have been opened after thousands of years and 
been searched into on all sides, and their whole interior 
arrangement has proved most contrary to this supposi- 
tion, as they contain no rooms except little sepulchral 
chambers, which have no proportion to the magnitude 
of the structure. They were also air-tight, and a cur- 
rent of air is indispensable to the preservation of grain.* 
No ! They were nothing but tombs for the kings ; and 
two reasons may be given for building the pyramids — 
Religion and Policy. The religious faith of the old 
Egyptians is well known, that after death the soul 
leaves the body and wanders through the bodies of 
various animals for purification, and not till after a 
succession of thousands of years returns back to the 
same human body to live anew in it. This was reason 
enough for mighty kings to cherish the wish either to 
hold back the soul in the body and wholly to escape the 
dread wandering, or at least to preserve the body from 
any corruption, any disgrace, disturbance and destruc- 

* [It may be observed in passing that this remark of Horus is 
doubtless incorrect, as the exclusion of air as much as possible is 
deemed important in silos, or subterranean pits for preserving grain. 
— Tr.] 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 215 

tion till the requickening. On this account all the 
Egyptians were embalmed after death and placed in air- 
tight, closed catacombs, and for this reason the most 
powerful kings built the pyramids as the most solid, 
surest and most durable tombs. But there was another 
reason which was the cause of these structures — Policy. 
As afterward the Israelites were forced to the hardest 
labors, because they hoped thus to prevent their increase 
and possible rebellion ; as Tarquinus Superbus for simi- 
lar reasons employed the Roman people in the building 
of subterranean sewers,* so the building of the pyra- 
mids gave our kings an excellent opportunity to occupy 
thousands of idle people, and to hold them in oppressive 
bondage. Those who first tried it were indeed cursed 
and execrated by the people ; but, in time, the people 
became accustomed to it, and the later ones were built 
without exciting the discontent of the population. For 
it is an old and acknowledged State-craft of tyrants to 
make their subjects poor by oppressive labors ; to en- 
slave and humble them in their own eyes in order that, 
occupied in their business and with daily food, they 
might have no time to think of rebellion, "f 

During these words of my little conductor the sun 
had sunk continually lower, and we might expect to see 
it soon disappear behind the tops of the pyramids in the 
West. Its last beams irradiated the numerous canals 
which connected the Nile with Lake Moeris and 
stretched like silver bands over the fruitful plains. Then 
Horus, with a friendly gaze on the lovely valley, seized 
my hand. " We must now part," said he, with a troubled 
look ; " but I hope you have seen and heard enough to 

* Ex. i. 10. Livy, I. 56, 50. f Aristotle's Politik, V. 11. 



216 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 



The 



be able to relate much to your contemporaries, 
time is not far off when our old realm will lie open to 
you as it has b^en outspread to-day before your eyes. 
Labor earnestly in the common fight for truth and light. 
There are many prejudices indeed to be destroyed which 
the learned of all ages have cherished and diffused. But 
they will disappear ; the majority of our dead will come 
out of their graves and bear their testimony to the van- 
ished splendor of past centuries. But for the proof that 
you have not dreamed, that I have in truth appeared to 
you and been your faithful guide, you must take with 
you into your own country a memorial of me." 

And he looked around him as though he was seeking 
for some object which he could give me for a present. 
Then the wind, which had risen at the departure of the 
sun, blew T before our feet a small, torn piece of papyrus 
which a scribe might have thrown away as useless and 
worthless. This the little fellow caught up, and after 
he had directed a silent prayer to the god Thoth, the 
secret scribe of his father Osiris, and he with an invisi- 
ble hand had reached out to him a writing-reed dipped 
in ink, he bent down in his well-known position on the 
earth, wrote very hurriedly some hieroglyphics on the 
paper, and held it out to me. 

" Go," said he, for a farewell, "into the city and re- 
late to all the people what you have heard and seen in 
the city of Memphis and the sanctuary of Ptah, the 
everliving God!" 

Yet one friendly greeting, a kind, childish nod of the 
head and — all had vanished. I stood again under the 
old oak ; only the leaf of papyrus in my hand recalled 
to me what I had experienced. I cast a glance on it 
and saw the following writing : — 



THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 217 

They were the same words which my faithful com- 
panion had last addressed to me, which I also deciphered 
from the hieroglyphics. ( 23 ) The autumn wind rustled 
in the branches of the trees, and from the leaves falling 
and driven around in a whirl there resounded to me as 
on spirit- wings these words : — 

u Gro into the city and relate to all the people what 
you have heard and seen in the city of Memphis and 
in the sanctuary of Ptah, the everliving Grod.' n 

Thoughtful, I walked homeward. And w T hat I had 
seen in spirit I wrote down, and often thought of the 
wondrous appearance. But the yellowed leaf reposes 
in a hidden compartment of my writing-table as a dear 
memorial of a dream fresh with life, of three days 
pleasantly lived in the old venerable city of Memphis, 
of which an Arabian historian,* who visited Egypt in 
the thirteenth century of our chronology, says, " Al- 
though this formerly so rich and venerable city, in which 
so many different religions have prevailed, has been 
wholly despoiled by successive bloody revolutions of its 
citizens ; although it is buried in ruins and its founda- 
tion-walls are destroyed even to their last vestiges ; al- 
though its stones and remains have been carried away ; 
although its buildings have been dragged off and its 
statues mutilated; although more than four thousand 
years have destructively passed over it, yet you will find 

* Abdollatif ed. White, pp. 118, 120, 
19 



218 THREE DAYS IN MEMPHIS. 

much of the wondrous, at which even the reason of the 
most acute observer will stand still and the most elo- 
quent historian must be dumb. The more attentively 
you consider the ruins the more admiration will they ex- 
cite in you; the more carefully you investigate them the 
more must you be astonished. As often as you pene- 
trate into anything you will confess that yet greater 
things lie hidden beneath it, and as often as you derive 
knowledge from them you will be aware that what re- 
mains concealed must be far greater and -still more 
worthy of your admiration." 



NOTES. 



(1) p. 16. The little god is called Horus on account of its being 
shorter; but by him is properly meant to be understood the well- 
known Harpocrates. For the Egyptians in their mythology distin- 
guish two of the name of Horus — an older and a younger. The 
former is a brother of Osiris, born with him on one of the five inter- 
calary days, and was called Har-ueri, i.e. Horus the Elder; the latter 
is the son of Isis and Osiris, and in the well-known myth the avenger of 
his murdered father. He is always called Harpo-chroti, [Harpocrates, ] 
i.e. Horus the Child. That he always remained a child, and is always 
represented as such, is for the reason that in contrast to the powerful 
Osiris, who was conceived of as the autumn-sun dispensing fruits and 
blessings of all kinds, he was figured as the feeble and powerless 
early spring-sun. Compare the author's Thoth, pp. 33, 40. His 
name is always written and represented on the hieroglyphic monu- 
ments by the so-called Horus-hawk [Har], a square [P], and the 
image of a child in the position sketched [Chroti]. Frequently, also, 
the words are added — "Son of Osiris and son of Isis." Compare 
Bunsen's iEgypten's Stelle in der Weltgeschichte, Plate xiv. 

(2) p. 33. The sacred books of the Old Egyptians contain, accord- 
ing to Clement of Alexandria, [Strom, vi. 4, S. 757,] not only hymns 
to the gods and directions for the life of the king, but they treat also 
of the particular branches of astronomy, cosmography, geography, 
the Nile, the estates and furniture of the temples, sacrifices, prayers, 
festive processions, feasts, laws, and all parts of medical science. 
The legends themselves place the time of the composition of these 
writings in the earliest reigns of the old kingdom ; and that in fact 
they must have been very old is evident from this, that already under 
Osimandyas — about 1700 years before Christ — there is mention made 

219 



220 NOTES. 

of a .famous library building. A great number also of rolls of pa- 
pyrus, of the contents above mentioned, have been found, that pro- 
bably may be regarded as parts and extracts of those old scientific 
works. Among them, namely, are the papyrus of Cadets — in the 
Description de V Egypt ; the large Mimitoli papyrus ; and prominent 
above all is the large papyrus, fifty-seven feet long, at Turin, which 
Lepsius published after a drawing of the Director, under the title of 
" The Book of the Dead of the Old Egyptians, according to the hiero- 
glyphic papyrus in Turin, [Das Todtenbuch der Alten iEgypter nach 
dem hieroglyphischen papyrus,] Berl. 1842." Brugsch, who in the 
year 1851 had an opportunity to compare this edition in the time and 
place with the original, in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenland- 
ischen Gesellschaft, 1851, p. 515, describes it as "very defective ;" and 
if this objection is well grounded, the merit of this publication also 
will be considerably lessened ; as the Egyptian philology and know- 
ledge of writing and speech are in a great degree founded on the few 
monuments and written rolls hitherto published, and accuracy, care 
and conscientiousness must be regarded as the first requisites for the 
Egyptologist. 

Champollion has already subjected this papyrus to an examination, 
and in his writings cites some groups from it. He divided the whole 
into three parts, [Chaps. 1-15; 15-125; 125-End.] The occasion 
of this division was the circumstance that these sections are often 
found alone ; and some manuscripts conclude with chap. 15, others 
with chap.- 125, whereby these three great portions appear to be sepa- 
rate writings, independent of each other. Let us hear, now, what 
the editor says of the contents of this Turin roll of papyrus. Differing 
from Champollion, who calls it a funeral liturgy, \_Rituel funeraire,~] 
and explains it as being precepts for the worship of the dead, hymns 
and prayers, Lepsius in his Introduction says — "The dead person in 
whose tomb it was found was the person treated of in it, and it relates 
only to him and his circumstances in his long wandering after his death 
on earth. It tells where he comes, what he does, hears, sees; or it con- 
tains the prayers and discourses which he himself utters to the diffe- 
rent gods to whom he makes his approach." Lepsius further desig- 
nates the whole book as a collection of single, more or less early, 
independent texts, joined in one roll and placed under the title which 
refers only to, the first fifteen chapters, as follows : " Beginning of the 
chapter of the appearance in the light of Osiris." Then the particu- 
lar vignettes of the title and larger pictorial representations — as, for 
example, of the judgment of the dead — are described generally. 



NOTES. 221 

Lepsius has not given connected translations, and we ought not to 
expect any from him ; as at a later period he has first declared we 
must entirely refrain from it in course and as a whole, and only use 
those parts which can be unquestionably explained. Compare Ueber 
eine hieroglyphische Inschrift am Tempel zu Edfu : Aus den Abhand- 
lungen der Koniglichen Academie zu Berlin, 1855, pp. 69-141. Some 
years after the publication of the Book of the Dead, [Todtenbuch,] 
Seyffarth directed bis attention especially to it, whose principles of 
deciphering, differing from Champollion's, need not here be repeated, 
as they are to be seen in many works of modern times. Compare my 
De Veterum JEgyptiorum lingua et Uteris. Leips. 1851, and Seyffarth's 
Grammatica JEgyptiaca, Goth. 1855. He treated of the Todtenbuch 
in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, 1845, 
'46, p. 71, &c, under the title "das Turiner Hymnologium," and 
translated its superscription thus: "Contemplation of the discourses 
of the Serene, Sublime King, the Creator of Men, the God before 
whom bow the mountains of the world," [Betrachtung der Reden das 
Erlauchten, des Erhabenen Konigs. des Schopfers der Menschen, des 
Gottes vor dem sich die Berge der Welt beugen.] Some other chap- 
ters also — 1, 6, 7, 11, 65, 80, 88 — he subjoins in a translation, and 
endeavors to define the contents of all the chapters according to their 
superscriptions. But much as the phonetic system and principle of 
homonyms discovered and followed by him is to be recommended, 
yet the translations at that time given by him suffer from certain 
defects which he has first corrected recently. He assuredly would 
have obtained many more disciples of his system, and have secured 
much greater applause for himself from the learned, had he adopted 
the pure Coptic language as the basis of his decypherings. But he 
held to the Old Egyptian language as a peculiarly sacred one — a dia- 
lect approaching the Chaldaic ; and then explained this simultane- 
ously from the Coptic, Chaldaic and Hebrew languages, whereby he 
allowed a considerable play for mere conjecture. It is also known 
that in the Oriental languages, in the case of genitives the principal 
governing word always precedes, and the dependent ones always fol- 
low ; and that in the same the object hardly ever can stand before 
the verb. Seyffarth on the contrary left out of view this important 
law of Oriental language ; he translated, for example, wholly accord- 
ing to modern usage, — "The raiser of the dead; the people of the 
law ; the godless he punishes in the name of the prince ; he who does 
not honor the laws ; to what flames he is hurled down like the stars," 

19* 



222 NOTES. 

&c. [Der Todten Auferwecker; des Gesetzes Leute; die Gottlosen 
straft er im Namen des Fiirsten ; wer die Gesetze niclit ehrt ; welcher ' 
Flanmien herabstiirzt gleich den Sternen, &c] 

But aside from this and some other defects of his translations in 
1815, Seyffarth, without receiving the acknowledgment due to him, 
has essentially aided the study of the deciphering of hieroglyphics, 
and in respect to Champollion must always be named as the first dis- 
coverer of syllabic hieroglyphics. But that Lepsius and Seyffarth 
translated the title itself of the book so diversely from each other, is 
the less remarkable, since even the name of the mother of the dead 
is differently read by different advocates of the same system, as for 
example by Lepsius, Setuta ; by Brugsch, Tsenmin ; by Orcurti, 
Setniin. 

If we wish further to pursue the fates of the Todtenbuch, besides 
small portions and sections, — as for example in my Thoth, Gott. 1855, 
and Todtengericht bei den alt. JEg., Berl. 1854, — there have very 
lately again been made essays at its translation. Especially we may 
cite Seyffarth' s Theologische Schriften der Alten JEgypter, Gotha. 
1855, in which book — chaps. 1, 5, 108, and plates xli. 1. lxxii. — 
twenty-five are translated and illustrated in detail. Almost contem- 
poraneously, or only a short period later in the same year, has ap- 
peared an accurate description of the monuments of the Turin Mu- 
seum, [Orcurti. Catalogo illustrato, etc., Tur. 1855, 8,] in which also 
some sections of the Todtenbuch are translated into Italian. Of these 
two, Seyffarth's appears to be entitled to the most credit, and so to 
deserve the preference ; because they seem to be founded on the para- 
phrase of the hieroglyphic pictures by Coptic letters, and the tracing 
them back to Coptic roots of words, and for an accurate exposition; 
and it can thus be subjected to a test, while in Orcurti's there is only 
a simple Italian translation, without any linguistic explanations, in 
which a person conversant with hieroglyphics could not once ima- 
gine why it should be translated precisely thus and not otherwise. 
For his exposition, which he has translated after Champollion, is not 
satisfactory, as a great number of groups of hieroglyphics which are 
found in the Book of the Dead are scarcely explained at all in Cham- 
pollion' s Dictionaries, or otherwise than by his successor. 

As now in this volume of mine frequent reference is made to par- 
ticular sections of the Book of the Dead, so I subjoin a short account 
of the contents, according to the superscription of the particular 
chapters : — 

Superscription — ''Book of the Discourses of the Supreme God, the 



NOTES. 223 

Most High King, the Ruler of his Slaves, the God who Created the 
World." 

Chap. 14 — treats of the Creator and of the Creation ; especially of 
the formation of light, of the human race, of the four-footed animals, 
fruit-trees and fruits. Next follow, on to Chap. 20, pious medita- 
tions, and hymns to particular divinities, especially to the Sun-god, 
to Thoth [18] and others. Then meditations on the various parts of 
the human body — the mouth, the bladder, the stomach, the heart 
[26], and especially important beasts — for example the beetle, 
[30] the crocodile, [31, 32] serpents and worms. Chap. 42, in the 
manner of the old ^astrology distributes the fourteen members of the 
human body under the seven planetary divinities and twelve great 
zodiacal gods, and recommends the same to their special protection. 
Then follows sketches of particular trades or occupations, as of a 
butcher, cabinet-maker, baker, apothecary, seaman; then particular 
magistrates, supreme judge, the executioner, jailer, college of justices 
and others, as well as finally sacred animals — for example the hawk, 
the phoenix ; also writing and its inventor are celebrated in Chap. 90, 
&c. Chap. 99 treats of navigation on the Nile, and the necessary 
parts of a well-built vessel. Of particular interest here too are Chap. 
110 and Plate xli., on account of a representation of the land of the 
blessed, where the dead sails on the heavenly Nile, where he ploughs, 
sows, harvests, threshes and sacrifices ; where the two barks are 
formed on which the sun and moon navigate the heavens. Chap. 
125 and Plate 1. represent the already-explained judgment of the dead 
in Amenthes. Compare my Todtengericht bei den Alten iEgypter, 
Berl. 1854. The proper hymnology, with the song of praise to the 
gods, begins with Chap. 121 ; and then follow the astronomical books 
[Chaps. 144-150]. Of these Lepsius in his Introduction, p. 16, says 
only the following: "Chap. 144, Seven Ari are enumerated in the fol- 
lowing twenty-one Sebchet, then fifteen Sebchet, then again seven 
Ari," — without further explanation what the heavenly abodes Ari and 
Sebchet mean. But the sections bear the following superscriptions : — 

144. Book of the Seven Princes, the Lords of the house [planets]. 

145. Book which treats of the twenty-one possessions of the house 
of the Shining abodes in the dwelling-house of Osiris [constellations]. 

146. Book of the fifteen possessions of the house of the Shining 
abodes in the dwelling of Osiris. 

149. Without superscription treats also of the groups of Stars, of 
which every one is named Kol, i.e. collection, viz. of stars. 

The numbers 7, 21 and 15 might have been introduced because the 



224 NOTES. 

discourse here is of the planets and groups of stars, as also Ptolemy 
in his "Almagest" mentions 21 constellations of the Northern and 
15 of the Southern Hemisphere. The last sections appear, again, to 
be of medical subjects, as they treat of some internal parts of the 
human body. Compare Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morg. Gesellschaft, &c. 

(3) p. 35. Plutarch in his well-known essay " De Iside et Osiri," 
chap. 10, says, respecting the name of the latter, — "Some also ex- 
plain the name [Os-iri] by Many-Eyed, because Os signifies many, 
and iri in Egyptian language is the eye." Since now Osiris was 
originally regarded as the God of the Sun-light, so this explanation 
is not only sensible but it is confirmed and justified by the Egyptian 
language and by the hieroglyphics in which both parts of the name 
arc found in the given meaning. Compare the Author's Philologus 
JEgypticus, Lips. 1853, p. 24. On the other hand moderns have sought 
other explanations of the name ; and although Osiris is well known 
to be the husband of Isis, Bunsen, following Plutarch, chapter 34, 
names him Hysiris, and says, [JEg. Stelle in der Weltgsch. I. p. 494,] 
" This connected with the hieroglyphic leads to the sole correct deri- 
vation of the name — the Son of Isis." But aside from the fact that 
Osiris never appears as the son but always as brother and husband 
of Isis, according to this explanation iri must signify son, which can- 
not be proved, as iri and alu, p. b(S(S, are widely different, though the 
change of r and I is found in the Egyptian language. Another expla- 
nation is found in Seyffartlrs Theol. Schrift. d. alt. JEg. He says, 
p. 2, '-Osiris signifies the Most Holy." But this translation appears 
not to be founded in the Coptic language, as in that there is no single 
word similar to iri with the meaning of holy. The meaning of the 
name therefore already proposed by Plutarch must be allowed the 
preference. 

(4) p. 50. The wine-culture among the other ancient nations is 
described by the old writers exactly in the following sketch of the 
culture of the vine in Egypt according to representations on the wall- 
pictures. According to Pliny, XVII. 21, there were five different 
methods of the same : either they left the grapes to run simply on the 
ground, or to shoot without any supports upward, or they fastened 
them to single poles or two or three supports connected by a yoke. 
The first of the kinds mentioned is even to-day used in Palestine, 
[Rosenmuller Morgenl. iv. 88, ff,] while the latter, according to the 
monuments, were specially in use in Egypt. Among the old Ptoruans 
the vine-stock was planted in hollows or trenches, supported by poles 
of reed, oak or olive wood; sometimes every stock had four poles 



NOTES. 225 

with a cross-piece over every one, and was then called vitis compluviata, 
on account of the resemblance of this square to the compluvium, the 
inside court of the Roman house surrounded by buildings. They 
were also wont to bind the vine-stocks to certain trees, and as it were 
marry them with the same, of which Horace plays upon the words in 
his Second Epode, [Plin. xiv. 1 : populis nubunt maritas complexse.] 
The pressing took place among the Old Hebrews as with the Egyp- 
tians, by treading out in a trough, while among the Romans frequently 
a particular machine for pressing is mentioned, from which the 
pressed-out juice was run through a sieve and caught in a large tub. 
But that wine was cultivated, pressed out and drunk early in Egypt, 
the many pictures of the wine-culture, vintage, taking off of the 
grapes, pressing and filling the juice into flasks and pitchers, prove, 
which are found on the Old Egyptian wall-pictures, and which have 
been published by Rosellini and Wilkinson, [Ros. ii. 1, p. 865 ; Wilk. 
ii. 143, &c] Rosellini says of these pictures, — "These objects are 
not found merely in the tombs of the time of the 18th Dynasty, but 
also in those which belong to the oldest dynasties." With this may 
be compared what Athenaeus says in his Deipnosophists, v. p. 191 : 
"Among the Egyptians formerly the banquets of every kind were 
moderate, as Apollonius relates, who has written concerning the cus- 
toms of this people. They contented themselves when they sat at 
table with the most common and healthy food, and with as much wine 
as is sufficient to cheer the heart, [ad animum exhilarandum.~]" The 
same author at the end of his first book praises greatly the Egyptian 
wine, mentions a number of species, and says that the kind which 
grew especially around Koptos was so light that it might be given 
without hesitation to the sick. 

(5) p. 59. The Egyptian wagon is correctly described here accord- 
ing to the representations on the Egyptian monuments. Exactly 
similar, only probably more durable and less elegant, were the Egyp- 
tian war-chariots. Compare Thoth, p. 94. Two-wheeled battle- 
chariots are also found with the Homeric heroes and the Old Hebrews, 
with whom they doubtless consisted wholly of iron, as in the different 
passages in the Bible the iron is named, [Josh. xvii. 16 ; Judges i. 
19.] Also among these people only two persons stood up in the 
chariot as with the Egyptians, one a combatant and the other a driver. 
The Gauls and Britons too had such battle-chariots, which were called 
esseda, and after whom the combatants in the chariots were called 
essedarii — Caes. Bell. iv. 33. 

(6) p. 66. The account of Atnute respecting the primitive history 



226 NOTES. 

of Egypt, with the exception of the invented name Sabo, — iEg. Sabe, 
the Learned, Sabo, to learn, — are perfectly historical. The original 
inhabitants of the country, according to the legends of the Egyptians 
themselves, were without the knowledge of agriculture, and lived, 
without any regular civil government, on the natural fruits of the 
earth, and on fishes which the Nile furnished in abundance ; and they 
inhabited huts made of rushes. Compare Heeren Ideen. ii. 60. 
The first culture these tribes of black and dark-brown color, and who 
appear thus represented in the monuments, received, were by means 
of people of another descent and complexion, who settled down in the 
valley of the Nile, built cities, erected monuments and founded States. 
The ruling castes of priests and soldiers, according to the variegated 
wall-pictures, belonged to a fairer race, who subjected the dusky ones 
and made them their dependents. The origin of these two castes, who 
exercised the most decisive influence on the cultivation and religion 
of the whole people, is of the highest importance, and can be easily 
discovered and proved. Thebes and Elephantine, which are called 
the two most important States of Upper Egypt, in the statements of 
the priests to Diodorus, must have been colonies of Meroe in Ethiopia, 
while Memphis on the contrary was a colony of Thebes. So then it 
was that the priestly stock, who reigned in Memphis, spread them- 
selves out by colonies first in Upper Egypt, and from thence again 
caused other settlements following the course of the river in the 
northern regions, which originally also formed as many single priestly 
States independent of each other, and afterward united by powerful 
rulers into one whole. This mother-State Meroe was in the earliest 
period already famed on account of its proportionably high cultiva- 
tion, its cities, temples and palaces, as well as on account of its pic- 
ture-writing, civil institutions and laws. The ancients speak of an 
island of Meroe, by which is understood the country that is surrounded 
by the rivers At-bar and Bahr el Abiad, and might easily be regarded 
as an island, as in the inundation it might present such an appearance. 
The ancient authors have related many things of this Meroe. The 
ruling priestly stock chose from among themselves a king, who was 
honored as a god by the people, but was as dependent on the priests 
as was afterward the Egyptian kings. Compare Thotli, p. 82, &c. 
The priests, as Diodorus relates, III. 6, when it was thought best 
for him to die, sent a messenger to the king with such a command. 
They caused it to be announced to him that the Gods had enjoined 
this — and the king in such a case never ventured to resist the will of 
the Gods or of the priests, but yielded himself up to death. But 



NOTES. 227 

Meroe was, according to Herodotus, II. 29, at the same time also a 
warlike, conquest-loving State, which as Pliny, VI. 29, relates in the 
period of its highest prosperity had an army of 250,000 men under 
arms. Priests and soldiers therefore, those whom Egypt received 
from abroad as an entering element, possessed Meroe in the greatest 
degree and in large numbers, so that the opinion that colonies of 
Meroe had wandered into Egypt appears ever more credible and de- 
serving of credit. The two principal gods who were honored in 
Meroe were Jupiter and Dionysios, or Ammon and Osiris. The wor- 
ship of Ammon became extended even to Thebes the city of Ammon, 
and to Ammonium in the Lybian Desert, both of which are named 
after this god, [Herod. II. 42.] And when Diodorus, III. 3, relates 
that the Egyptians were colonists who went out of Ethiopia to Egypt 
under the lead of Osiris, by this legend is intimated the diffusion of 
the worship of Osiris from Ethiopia and Meroe. In the same place 
Diodorus points to the agreement of Egyptian manners and laws with 
the Ethiopian. 

(7) p. 70. According to the concurring accounts of later writers, 
astrology was first and especially cultivated in Egypt, and then com- 
municated to the rest of the world. Herodotus relates, II. 82, that 
the Egyptians had first found out what god ruled in every particular 
month and every particular day ; and how, therefore, it could be 
reckoned what misfortunes awaited any one according to the constel- 
lation at the hour of birth ; how and when one should die, and what 
character he should have. For according to the ancient astrology the 
signs of the zodiac, its decans and degrees and the months corres- 
ponding to them, the ten-day weeks and the days, yea, even the 
hours, were under the reign of well-known planet-gods, and they 
sought, from their different positions in relation to each other, from 
their reciprocal, friendly, or hostile appearance [aspect] to determine 
the fate or destiny of the newly-born. In this respect generally cer- 
tain planets were benignant, others unfavorable ; the former promised 
good-luck, the latter foreboded ill-luck. Jupiter and Venus were 
always propitious ; on the other hand Saturn and Mars were always 
unfavorable, while Mercury was variable. The sun and moon, al- 
though the greatest; most powerful and efficacious of all, had in dif- 
ferent places a different influence. Compare Sextus Empiricus 
Adversus Astrologos and the astrological writings of Ptolemy, Vcttius 
Valens, Paulus Alexandricus, Firmicus, Marcus Manlius. When now 
Atnutc relates that he was born in the hour of mid-day, the sun stand- 
ing high in ilic zenith was decidedly favorable to him, while Mars 



228 NOTES. 

and Saturn, the hostile stars, threatened him with misfortune and 
ruin, from their hostile aspects. In the same manner, though much 
more favorable, because the influence of the two unpropitious planets 
fell out, was the constellation of Goethe. He begins in Dichtung and 
Wahrheit with the words — "With the stroke of the clock at twelve 
I came into the world. The constellation was favorable: the sun 
stood in the sign of the Virgin and culminated for the day. Jupiter 
and Yenus looked clown kindly; Mercury not contradictory; Saturn 
and Mars were indifferent." 

(8) p. 76. It is of course to be understood that other funeral pro- 
cessions might and did differ from that here described, in some par- 
ticulars. This is correctly described according to that of a Royal 
Secretary which Wilkinson gives in pictures in the above-mentioned 
place. The funeral processions no doubt differed according to the 
class, occupation, or the higher or lowlier position in life of the de- 
ceased. As the opened tombs prove, the principal ensigns of his 
former business and different objects that he prized were carried after 
the mummy in solemn procession and put into the tomb — as for ex- 
ample, for the soldiers their arms ; for mechanics their tools ; for 
physicians their surgical instruments and a small medicine chest, 
such as may be found in the Royal Museum at Berlin ; for the de- 
ceased, if a woman, her mirror, combs, ear-drops, necklace and 
other ornaments. In the whole ceremonies likewise there was dis- 
played more or less splendor and cost, corresponding to the birth, 
position in life and riches of the deceased. The sketch too of the 
passage across the lake, given in what follows, is according to the 
pictures on the monuments. The Berlin Museum possesses two old 
Egyptian models of such barks which were found inside of a sepul- 
chral chamber close to the sarcophagus. In the former of them lies 
the mummy of the deceased on a bed of death, under a canopy; two 
priests stand beside it, one of them reading in a written roll, the 
other is slaying a bullock. Qrcurti also — Catalogo Illustrate*, p. 101, 
No. 167 — mentions a model of the bark of the holy procession in the 
Egyptian Museum at Turin. 

(9) p. 86. The description of the Labyrinth is attempted, according 
to the accounts — varying indeed from each other in some details — 
of the old historians, especially Herodotus, Strabo and Pliny. The 
passage quoted from Pliny gave occasion to the hypothesis advanced 
respecting the object of this vast building, yet it is not to be denied 
nor passed over that other attempts have been made at all times to 
find out its destination. It has been regarded sometimes as a burial- 



NOTES. 229 

place of the kings, sometimes as a house destined for the conferences 
of State-officers, sometimes as a place where the mysteries were cele- 
brated, and sometimes finally as a laboratory, where the Egyptian 
priests sought to find out the philosopher's stone. Compare Gatterer, 
Weltgeschichte in ihrem ganzen Umfange, i. p. 504, &c. As to the 
builder, or rather the first founder of the Labyrinth, we find in Era- 
tosthenes that it was Mares, while in Manetho it is Lamares, the suc- 
cessor of Sesostris, [Twelfth Dynasty,] in eight years of his reign, and 
the inscription is — ''This Labyrinth was erected for a tomb." Hero- 
dotus likewise narrates of the old kings who "originally" erected the 
Labyrinth, and whose coffins stood in it. Diodorus, I. Gl, says that 
it was built by a monarch by the name of Mendes, whom some also 
call Maros, which latter name agrees with Mares and Lamares. But 
the building may have decayed somewhat by time, and been restored 
under the Dodecarcby, so that afterward the Dodecarchs themselves 
were looked upon as its builders, [Herod. II. 148.] That, as is here 
shown, the building itself at different times received alterations and 
new additions, may probably also explain how the different his- 
torians, who visited Egypt in different centuries or drew from various 
accounts, disagree in some points with each other in their descriptions 
of it. If as the old historian maintains, it was a tomb of the kings, 
it shows a great progress of the art and taste in contrast to the 
earlier colossal pyramids, [4th Dynasty of Manetho,] void of taste, 
the entrance to which, after the deposit of the mummy, was walled 
up and wholly closed against access to the outer world. An Essay 
for an architectural plan of the interior arrangement of the wondrous 
structure, made according to the old descriptions, by Mr. Arundale, 
may be found in Bunsen's JEgypten's Stelle in der Weltgeschichte, 
ii. S. 884, and plate xxi. The Labyrinth which Dcdalus constructed 
in Crete might have been an imitation, in miniature, of the Egyp- 
tian ; a third one was in Lemnos, a fourth in Italy. — Pliny Nat. 
Hist, xxxvi. 18. 

(10) p. 96. Proper coins, in our sense of the word, arc first to be 
found in Egypt in the time of the Ptolemies and the Roman sove- 
reignty, and so since about 300 B.C. "The so-called Scarahsei often 
found in great quantities in Egypt, and now preserved in European 
museums, have for this reason been regarded as Egyptian money. 
These are smaller or larger stone images of beetles, with longer or 
shorter inscriptions engraved on the bottom surface. But they could 
not have been money, because they are never of the nobler metals 
but wholly of stone. Moreover they are no doubt seal-stones, as 

20 



230 NOTES. 

some of them were set in gold rings, and as their inscriptions not only 
contain the names of the kings but also of the gods and of private 
persons. The collection by Doron and Klaproth — Collection oV An- 
tiquites Egyptiennes, Par. 1829 — contains more than a thousand of 
such various Scarabaei impressions. Compare Zeitsch. der Morgenl. 
Gesellsch. vol. vi. p. Ill, &c. They therefore, as is more than pro- 
bable from the account of the most ancient times in Egypt as well 
as in other nations, made use of smaller and greater lumps of gold 
and silver, which were furnished with marks of their weight ; and 
thus by those who in an ancient Egyptian law — in Diodorus i. 78 — are 
called vouLGjua TrapaKOTrrovreg, counterfeiters of money, persons are to be 
understood who made false accounts in respect to the signs of weight. 
So Abraham, [Gen. xxiii. 16,] in payment of a field of Ephron, weighed 
out silver, and the ancient Israelitish merchants for this object car- 
ried a little balance in their girdle-bags. But since often in the Egyp- 
tian monuments persons are pictured who weigh a quantity of equally 
large golden and silver rings with each other, there is reason for the 
supposition that they probably made use of small rings of defined 
weight as a sort of common money. 

(11) p. 99. We must in general confess that we know much less 
of the dwelling-houses of the old Egyptians than of their temples, 
palaces and other vast public works of architecture. Old writers — 
as Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, &c. — have only described in detail 
temples, palaces, pyramids, obelisks and the Labyrinth, but on the 
other hand have said little or nothing respecting the private dwell- 
ings of the Egyptians. Ruins too are preserved even to the present 
day of temples and other magnificent buildings, on account of their 
solid and durable materials, while there remains hardly a trace of 
the private houses, since they were always made less solid and mostly 
of bricks. As to the ruins of temples which remain, we perceive at 
first sight that the old Egyptians, as in many other things, were ori- 
ginal in their architecture, and differ essentially from other people 
of the same times. Vitruvius relates that the public buildings of the 
Greeks had a country house for a model, as the first inhabitants of 
Greece were early compelled by the climate of their country to erect 
huts of trunks of trees, twigs and straw, and therefore in their later 
architecture this form necessarily had an influence. On the other 
hand we find in the Egyptian buildings no trace of a similar primitive 
model, and we must therefore admit De Pauw's supposition that the 
original type of the Egyptian architecture was a cavern in a moun- 
tain, since the Egyptians must have dwelt in such caverns in the 



NOTES. 231 

earliest times, as they were lacking in timber; and on account of the 
inundations of the Nile they must have settled down earliest in the 
mountain regions of the Thebaid. The walls of the Old Egyptian 
temples and other public buildings were disproportionately thick ; ac- 
cording to the accounts of travelers they have been found from 20 to 
24 feet thick. The pillars were of such a kind that their thickness 
was very great in comparison to their height, the proportion of the 
diameters to the height varying from 1 to 3 and 1 to 6. Many pillars 
were 20, 24 and yet more feet in circumference, and they sometimes 
stood so near each other that the space between two of them was only 
1 J, 2 or 3 feet. The forms of the pillars were diverse. Most of them 
were round, many octagonal or hexagonal, and a very few square. 
With most of them the diameter was everywhere alike, yet there were 
those which bulged out in the lower third or half. The oldest pillars, 
for example many among the ruins of Thebes, had no pedestals ; but 
in other regions there have been found under the remains of the 
bottom, round, many-cornered and some few cube-shaped pedestals. 
The capitals of the pillars were of manifold shape, — square stones, 
lotus-flowers, leaf-work, Isis-heads, &c, the more decorated and 
artistic of which must be referred to a later period of the Egyptian 
kingdom. The roof was for the most part entirely flat, and consisted 
of large massive pieces of work which were laid across from one 
pillar to another, and on which again others rested, and so were ren- 
dered necessary many pillars standing so close to each other. 

As to the private dwellings of the Old Egyptians, alas ! descriptions 
are wanting ; but the circumstance that hardly any ruins of them are 
preserved indicate that they were built of lighter and more perish- 
able materials than the temples. Without doubt they were formed 
of rough bricks; and Wilkinson says, II. p. 96, the use of rough 
bricks hardened in the sun was common as well for public as also for 
private buildings, inclosures of gardens or grain-houses, walls around 
the courts of temples, the fortresses, cities and dwelling-houses and 
tombs — in short all except the temples themselves were of rough 
bricks. The picture in Wilkinson, II. p. 94, gives us a general idea 
of an Egyptian house according to the sculptures. We enter directly 
through a portico and the main gate into the first open court ; before 
us lies a hall resting on pillars which Wilkinson states to be the re- 
ception-room ; three gates open into a second court, which is planted 
with trees and has in the rear a large gate to go out by ; on the right 
and left again three gates lead to the interior of the house itself, i.e. 
first into two pillared passages, from which by a great number of 



232 NOTES. 

doors entrance can be had to as many rooms in the basement : they 
contained, according to the articles pictured therein, various kinds of 
stores, pitchers, boxes, dried fish, &c. At the further end is the 
kitchen. According to Wilkinson's supposition, the proper sitting- 
rooms, sleeping-chambers and guest-chambers were in a second story, 
above this basement. In respect to the Villa described in our text, 
reference may be made to a representation in Wilkinson, II. p. 132, 
taken from one of the old monuments, and which contains reservoirs, 
store-rooms, watch-rooms, stairway, an open court, a pavilion, a 
fruit-garden, stables, dwelling-rooms, shady alleys of trees, a canal 
from the Nile, pyramidal towers with porter's lodges, &c. 

(12) p. 104. Such unburnt bricks dried and hardened in the sun 
may be found in the Royal Berlin Museum, in a little passage-room 
which leads from the temple into the historical saloon. These bear 
the stamp of the kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and recall to mind 
vividly the time of the Israelitish bondage in Egypt. They contain 
for the most part a quantity of chopped straw, which is mixed in 
with the clay to give it firmness and durability. Baumgarten men- 
tions similar ones in modern times in Cairo, in his Travels, chap. 18. 
" The houses are mostly of bricks which are merely dried in the sun, 
and mixed with straw to give them firmness." Compare Rosenmuller, 
Morgenland. I. p. 27, and Rosellini, Monumenti del Egitto e delta 
Nubia, II. p. 259. 

(18) p. 116. Not only on account of the prophetic gifts here de- 
scribed which is assigned to him, but also in a chronological respect, 
is Apis of the highest importance. The five and twenty years' cycle 
of Apis, [eluooi'KEVTaETTjpiq,'] an equalizing of the solar and lunar calen- 
dar is well known, while 309 mean synodic months are equalized 
with 25 Egyptian years up to 1 hour, 8 minutes and 33 seconds. 
Compare Bailly, Hist, de Astron. pp. 404, 405 ; Lepsius, Chronologie, 
p. 160, and the author's Thoth, p. 225. It is also known that the Old 
Egyptians, in order to give to this astronomical period an outward 
symbolic dress, adored the sacred bullock Apis, at Memphis, and 
after he had been worshiped for twenty-five years killed him and 
supplied his place by another. For Apis was an animal consecrated 
to the Moon. Among the four genii of death he bore the head of the 
cynocephalus sacred to the moon, and which was named after his 
name, Ilapi, [Plut. Symp. viii. 1, and de Iside, chap. 43,] and on his 
right side had a picture of the moon on the increase, [Plin. Nat. Hist. 
viii. 46.] That he was consecrated to the moon Ammianus Marcel- 
linus, JElian, Porphyry, Suidas, &c. also confirm. Compare Zeitschr. 



NOTES. 233 

der Deutsch. Morgenland. Gesellscli. vol. vii. p. 427. According to 
other authors, Apis stood in a certain relation likewise to the Nile, 
and this it is easy to explain, since the swelling of the Nile was fre- 
quently brought into connection with the effects of the moon. Either 
the birth or the death of an Apis, the mourning over the same, or the 
festival and joy on account of again finding one, is mentioned in 
many ways by the ancient authors ; and the tombs of Apis recently 
discovered at Memphis promise new and important conclusions. But 
yet in these circumstances so full of significance for chronology there 
are some difficulties which hitherto have not found their entire expla- 
nation. Apis, like all living creatures, was mortal, and subject to 
different casualties. If now he died before the fixed period of the 
twenty-five years was he to be lamented till the end of this period, 
and then first a new one supplied in his place ? Or did he immedi- 
ately have a successor, who filled up the remaining years of the 
twenty-five of his predecessor ? How long was Apis usually mourned 
before they sought out and found a new one in place of the one de- 
ceased or killed ? These and other questions may be very properly 
asked and an answer to them desired, before the Apis-period can be 
allowed a determinate voice in the establishment of the Egyptian 
chronology; and when Seyffarth, for example, uses the account of 
Diodorus, I. 84, "That just after Alexander's death an Apis died in 
the feebleness of age [y^/oa]," for correcting the chronology [Berich- 
tungen der Greschichte und Zeitrechnung, Leips. 1855, pp. 11, 12] it 
may be justly objected that here the question is not of the close of an 
astronomical Apis-period ; as the death in the feebleness of age might 
take place at any given time within the twenty-five years, and only 
the drowning of Apis in the Nile by the priests at the end of his pre- 
scribed lifetime is related to an astronomical change of Apis. Com- 
pare Plin. viii. 46 ; Solinus, 32 ; Ammianus Marcellihus, xxii. 14. 7. 
At how early a time the introduction of this period falls is evident 
from this, that Manetho says, Under the second king of his second 
dynasty Kaiechos, the bulls Apis in Memphis and Mnevis in Heliopo- 
lis were proclaimed to be gods, [k<j> ov ol j36eg r Anig kv Me/ufoi, ml 

Mvevig kv 'H'kiovnoT&i kvo/iicd-^aav slvai •d-eol.'] But as every 

dead person was after his death identified with Osiris and was thought 
to be joined to him as one person, so too was Apis after his death, 
who received the name Osiris- Apis ['OGopanlc'] , that is by contraction 
Serapisy and as such, till the discovery of a new Apis, was as dead, 
mourned over, honored and worshiped, and placed in the Serapion in 
Memphis. Compare ^eitschr. der Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellscli. ut 

20* 



234 



NOTES. 



supra, p. 428. From "Osiris- Apis in Amenthes, King of the Gods," as 
he is often named on the monuments, arose the Serapis of the Greeks, 
the God of the world beneath. 

(14) p. 129. As the old astrologers placed every particular divi- 
sion of the zodiac — the years, months, weeks, days and hours, and 
in short all things in space and time — under the special protection of 
one of the seven planets, so to the various divisions of human life 
the planetary divinities were assigned as special sovereigns and 
rulers, and indeed in the following manner: — 

1. Childhood (infantia), lasting 4 years, the Moon. 



2. Boyhood 


(pueritia), i 


< 20 " 


Mercury 


3. Adolescence 


(adolescentia), ' 


8 « 


Venus. 


4. Youth 


(juvenilis), ' 


19 " 


Sun. 


5. Manhood 


(yirilitas), ' 


» 15 « 


Mars. 


6. Age 


(senectus), c 


< 12 " 


Jupiter. 



7. Old Age {senium), 



" till death, Saturn. 



Compare Ptolemy Quadripart. post Firmic. vol. ii. p. 72. For as fur- 
ther the old astrologers maintained that the particular events of life 
might be accurately reckoned to a day or hour according to the horo- 
scope, they also placed the particular years of the life of man under 
the seven planets in the succession given ; and thus the years 7, 14, 
21, &c. were regarded as specially unfortunate, because they had the 
hostile and ruinous Saturn for their governor. This is precisely our 
so-called years of the stages of life, which even to the present day 
are regarded as peculiarly dangerous turning-points in the life of a 
man, and owe their origin without doubt to the Old Astrology. Every 
such series of seven years was again placed under a particular planet, 
and so the 7 times 7 or 49th year was the most hazardous year of life, 
because it was doubly under Saturn — first as Saturn ruled this year 
49, and secondly because the same unpropitious planet ruled the 
whole succession from 43 to 49. And who does not know that in the 
superstition of all times, even to the most modern, the 49th year of 
one's life has always played a principal part ! 

(15) p. 147. Strychnos [orpvxvog'], according to Pliny, xxi. 15, a 
plant growing wild in Egypt, was well known to the ancients for its 
effects. The same author in different places of his Natural History 
gives different species and names to it. It was, for instance, called 
spear-plant \_dopvKvtov~\, because the ancients were wont to poison the 
points of their spears and arrows with the juice drawn from it ; the 
Romans called it vesicaria [bladder-plant], because they used it sue- 



NOTES. 235 

cessfully for the stone-disease of the bladder. Another species called 
halicacabon produced death more quickly than opium, and was also 
named morion or moly. This is the well-known fi&luV of Homer's 
Odyssey, x. 304, which was given to Ulysses by Mercury as a counter- 
charm against the enchantments of Circe, and which had a black root 
with milk-white blossoms. Xenocrates maintained that there was no 
bodily disease which could not be healed by strychnos. According 
to Pliny, xxvi. 12, the juice of the plant was applied with success to 
all kinds of wounded limbs ; it was also useful for bites of serpents 
and scorpions, headaches, goitres, &c. Its narcotic effects Pliny de- 
scribes, xxi. 31. — The smallest dose caused violent hallucinations, a 
double dose real madness [legitimam insaniam~\, and only a trifle more 
might produce death. It is well known that one of our most violent 
poisons [Strychnine] received its name from it. This latter most 
dangerous and destructive alkaloid is contained in the so-called strych- 
nos nuz vomica, the ignatius amara, in the strychnos columbiana, and in 
the arrow-poison of Borneo, [the Woorara, Upas tieute.~\ 

(16) p. 166. As the Old Egyptians did not intercalate, as we do, one 
day after four years of 365 days, but as the well-known Sothis period 
proves, after 1460 years one whole year, the festivals connected with 
particular calendar-days of the civil year did not always happen in 
the same season of the year. For since the New Year's day [the 
29th of the Julian August] once fell due on the first Thoih of the 
civil year, so after the first four years it fell on the second, after eight 
years on the third Thoth, and so on, and run through all the days of 
the civil year till after 1460 civil years it returned once more to the 
first Thoth. Thus too must the festival here described of Osiris, 
which every time followed directly after the last day of the month 
Mesori, run through the whole civil year; and just so might the various 
periods of the year — of the inundation, gathering of fruit — sometimes 
fall on this and sometimes on that month of the Egyptian year. 
But on the other hand there were also some festivals connected with 
determinate periods of the year, and so these again could not always 
happen in the same month. For example, the departure of Sirius 
or the dog-star was celebrated ; on the shortest day a cow was led 
seven times around the temple, and on the same day were brought 
the first-fruits of the blossoming lentils ; and about the time of the 
spring equinox the lying-in of Isis was celebrated. Compare Plu- 
tarch de Iside, 65. The arrangement of the festivals and the deter- 
mination to what days of the calendar they must belong was always 
a prerogative of the priests, who reckoned besides the civil year an 



236 NOTES. 

astronomical year of 365 days and 6 hours. This latter fixed year 
Cesar borrowed of the priests, as Dion Cassius [Hist, xliii. 26,] and 
Macrobius [Saturn, i. 14,] agree in stating. Compare Lepsius, 
Chronol. p. 149. 

(17) p. 169. Sesostris is a personage too prominent in Egyptian 
history not to devote to him some pages, and to make the attempt to 
determine accurately the time of his reign. Manetho in his whole 
list of Dynasties gives only one Sesostris, namely the third king of the 
12th Dynasty, to whom he assigns a forty-eight years' reign. It is 
probable the original work contained a fuller account ; the fragments 
that- have reached us in Africanus and Eusebius relate of him the 
following particulars: — "He was four ells, three palms and two inches 
high. In nine years he subdued all Asia, and Europe to Thrace, and 
everywhere erected monuments among all the nations whom he con- 
quered. By the Egyptians he was regarded as the greatest after 
Osiris." The extended legend of Sesostris is found in Herodotus, 
II. 102, &c. and Diodorus, I. 55, &c. Both agree in substance in the 
following statements : — He was educated in common with those boys 
who are born on the same day in the whole of Egypt, and early trained 
in warlike exercises. In his father's lifetime even he had conquered 
Arabia and a great part of Africa. After he had himself come to the 
throne, excited by his daughter Athyrtis, he formed the purpose of 
conquering and subjecting all the kingdoms of the world to himself. 
Before he went forth to the wars he made many good regulations, in 
order that during his absence peace and quiet might be preserved in 
his country. On this account he sought especially to assure to him- 
self the love of his subjects by large releases from debts and presents 
of gold and estates, and then divided the land into 36 Nomes or pro- 
vinces, over every one of which he placed a governor or Nomarch. 
After this he assembled his army, which consisted of 600,000 infantry, 
24,000 cavalry and 27,000 war-chariots. As leaders of the different 
divisions he appointed those warriors who were born on the same day 
as he was and had afterward been brought up together with himself. 
With this host he went at first to Ethiopia, conquered it without diffi- 
culty and rendered it tributary. Thence he sailed with a large fleet 
of 400 ships across the sea between Africa and Asia, and subdued the 
islands of the Indian Ocean, and also the mainland of India up to the 
Ganges. But as it was impossible to have carried so large an army 
over so wide an ocean, it is to be supposed indeed that at least a part 
of it marched on the roads by land to Asia, and there again may have 
met him. He now passed on westward, conquered Scythia to the 



NOTES. 237 

Don, Colchis, Asia Minor, and the islands of the Archipelago. At 
last he marched to Europe, where he contented himself however with 
reaching the Danube and making this river the boundary of his con- 
quests. As we see he marched through and conquered the whole of 
the then-known world, and ended his warlike expeditions where 2000 
years later Alexander the Great began his. In all the countries sub- 
dued by him he left monuments which contained inscriptions that 
gave his own name and that of his father, and related whether the 
conquered people had offered a brave resistance or cowardly yielded 
themselves. Among cowardly people the monumental columns con- 
tained particular and dishonorable images, [Manetho, Herodotus.] 
Such monumental pillars of Sesostris Herodotus himself saw in Syria 
and Ionia with his own eyes ; and of these campaigns the same author 
derives the agreement that is to be found in the particular customs 
of the Egyptians and other nations, as for example circumcision, 
which also was later in use among the Ethiopians, Phenicians, Jews, 
Colchians, &c. Finally wearied with conquests, after nine years Se- 
sostris returned to Egypt with an indescribable number of captives 
and with great booty and countless riches, where the wiles awaited 
him which are alluded to on page 164. Having escaped these in the 
way mentioned, after he had caused his insidious and traitorous bro- 
ther to be executed, he remained in the quiet and undisturbed posses- 
sion of his sovereignty. He divided all the spoil he had acquired in 
his campaigns among his soldiers, and now turned himself to peaceful 
acts, arrangements and laws, which were preserved to the latest period 
and proved full of blessing. 

The larger portions of Sesostris's kingdom being uninhabitable, 
partly on account of excessive inundations, and partly in regions at 
a distance from rivers on account of the want of water, he caused a 
large number of canals to be dug from the Nile throughout all Egypt, 
which moderated the overflows and distributed the water proportion- 
ally through the country ; so that a great part of it could now be 
cultivated and newly peopled. To afford protection from the too large 
inundations he also erected a great number of high and wide dams, 
on which afterward whole cities could be built. He likewise fostered 
the Arts, and caused very many temples, obelisks and statues to be 
erected. In all these magnificent buildings and works only the 
prisoners of war were used; and it was the special pride of the 
king that no Egyptian was employed for the same, which as Dio- 
dorus relates he boasted of in innumerable inscriptions. He is also 
regarded as the first founder and originator of the Egyptian laws of 



238 NOTES. 

war, which is not improbable, as lie was the first one who gathered 
so large an army around him, and therefore must have turned his 
particular care and notice to its discipline. — Thus Sesostris was great 
as a warlike hero, great as a lawgiver and in manifold works of peace, 
particularly by the erection of buildings and monuments ; and the 
memory of him was so sacred to the Egyptians that when two thou- 
sand years afterward the king of Persia, Darius Hystaspis, wanted to 
set up his statue in a temple of Memphis before that of Sesostris, 
the high-priest without hesitation ventured to make objections, and 
boldly observed that the statue of Darius did not deserve this place 
because he had hitherto done nothing which could be compared with 
the deeds of Sesostris much less exceed them. 

The views of modern investigators of history are now very diverse 
as to Sesostris. Although indeed Manetho has only one Sesostris in 
his list of kings ; although he ascribes to him the same deeds as He- 
rodotus and Diodorus, yet an attempt has been made to place the 
mighty conqueror and hero in other times and explain him to be the 
same person with other kings. For as his reign is one of the most 
important in the history of Egypt, so it has been the main effort of 
the chronologers of all times to determine his period accurately. 
Thus for example Marsham \Chron. Can. pp. 22, 352] believed Sesos- 
tris to be identical with the Shishak of the Holy Scriptures, who took 
and plundered Jerusalem in the time of Rehoboam. "For," says he, 
* ' according to the Alexandrine version and the Vulgate there followed 
Shishak a multitude of Lybians, Troglodites and Ethiopians, people 
of whom profane history says they were conquered by Sesostris." 
Marsham also believes that the pillars mentioned by Herodotus which 
he himself saw in Syria, were erected by the conqueror for the dis- 
grace of Rehoboam, who had surrendered the city without the least 
resistance. 

This view Perizonius \Orig. 2Eg. p. 106, &c] very justly contro- 
verts. He says Shisak and Sesostris were different kings and far 
separated from each other. Sesostris according to the clear declara- 
tions of the Greeks [compare, besides the before-quoted passages, 
Strabo, xvii. and Aristotle's Politik, vii. 10] was much anterior to 
the Trojan war. Justin, I. 1, says he lived before the days of Ninus, 
[Primus omnium Ninus, rex Assyriorum. . . . Fuere quidem temporibus 
antiquiores Sesostris, etc.] ; and iElian \_Var. Hist. xii. 4] maintains that 
he was instructed by Mercury. Perizonius too justly supposes that 
if Sesostris had lived in the time of Rehoboam, the Greeks who at 
that time possessed the greater part of Asia Minor, where the con- 



NOTES. 239 

quering marches of the former were extended, would have noticed 
them, and that Homer, born a few years afterward, would likewise 
have done so. Further, according to the Holy Scriptures and Jose- 
phus, Shisak after he had plundered Jerusalem and the temple re- 
turned home, while according to the accounts of the Greeks Sesostris 
overran the whole of Asia in a warlike campaign of nine years. 
Perizonius expresses the idea that Sesostris flourished in the time of 
the Judges, and the Israelites did not mention his campaigns in their 
writings because these were directed not so much against them as 
against the other inhabitants of the country ; and as Sesostris intro- 
duced no change in the kind of government of the countries and did 
not secure his conquests permanently for himself, so they might have 
regarded his conquest of Palestine merely as a passage through their 
country. 

In the most recent times the view is become almost universal that 
Sesostris was one of the Ramses whom Manetho [Dynasties XVIII. 
XIX. XX.] and the monuments mention. The main inducement for 
this is without doubt indeed the many war-pictures in the Egyptian 
wall-paintings, which represent the warlike expeditions and heroic 
deeds of the Ramessides ; and that these Ramessides and their war- 
like deeds are hardly mentioned by Herodotus and Diodorus. Boeckh 
for example says [Manetho und die Hundsternsperiode, Berlin, 1845, 
p. 294] of the 18th Dynasty — "Between Ramesses the 15th and 
Amenophat the 16th kings in Africanus, is to be inserted Ramses the 
Great, whom Africanus has omitted. While heretofore indeed Sethos 
or Sethosis, the first king of the 19th Dynasty, was held by Scaliger 
to be the Sesostris of the Greeks, yet on the other hand Champollion 
and Rosellini after the guidance of the monuments have recognized 
the Ramses Miamun found in this place of the 18th Dynasty as the 
Sesostris of the Greeks. Herodotus, II. 10, admits that the Egyptian 
priests had placed 330 families or kings after Menes, the last of whom, 
Moeris, was the 331st including Menes. After him, according to He- 
rodotus, directly followed Sesostris, Pheron, Proteus, &c. Herodotus 
further relates that when he conversed with the Egyptian priests 
Moeris had now been dead not nine hundred years. If we place 
Herodotus's visit to Egypt from 454 B.C. and on, then according to 
him Sesostris first came to the throne after the year 1354 B.C." 

Boeckh also remarks, p. 296, that Herodotus among other monu- 
ments in Asia, in Syria and Palestine, saw one of the pillars of Se- 
sostris with the dishonorable images which he caused to be set up 
among the conquered people whom he had found cowardly in resist- 



240 NOTES. 

ance. This monument is now known ; the image has indeed disap- 
peared, but the surname-shield Ramses III. is yet discernible. Com- 
pare Ideler, Hermapion, p. 249. Therefore the Sesostris of Herodotus 
was this Ramses. 

Another able critic, R'uhle of Lilienstern, [R. v. L. Graphische Dar- 
stellungen zur altesten Geschichte und Geographie von iEthiopien 
und iEgypten, p. 72,] maintains that Ramses VI. the first king of the 
19th Dynasty was Sesostris. He says, p. 73, "No one of all the 
Pharaohs has left behind him so countless a multitude of monuments 
as this famous conqueror, whose marches according to the traditions 
spread to the East, West and South, and almost the whole of the then- 
known world. . . . But further that this Ramses must have been one 
and the same person with the grandson of Miamun — who is called in 
the different fragments of Manetho Sethos and Sethosis, and by Dio- 
doris Sesoosis, by Strabo and Herodotus Sesostris — may be regarded as 
proved partly by Manetho' s own account of the flight of Amenophis 
[Ramses V. of the monuments] to Ethiopia, in Josephus against 
Apion, [I. p. 1035,] partly by the answer which Germanicus received 
in Thebes, [Tacit. Annal. II. 60.] There it is expressly said that 
the son of Amenophis, Sethos, was also called Ramesses or Ramses 
equally with his grandfather, and here the name of Ramses is affixed 
to the Egyptian conqueror of Lybia, Ethiopia, Media, Persia, &c. by 
the priests of the country." Besides he appeals, p. 75, to a bilingual 
inscription in hieroglyphics and arrow-headed characters mentioned 
by Champollion [Precis, p. 231] as made at Nahr el Kelb in Syria. 

The two principal reasons on which a union of Sesostris and Ram- 
ses in one person rests, are, as is evident from the above-quoted pas- 
sages, besides the war-pictures of the Ramessides, in the first place 
the number 900 with Herodotus, and secondly the monument in Syria 
which does not contain the name of Sesostris but Ramses. But these 
reasons do not compel us to bring Sesostris [XII. Dyn.] forward to a 
much later time [XVIII. or XIX. Dynasty] against Manetho' s account. 
The war-paintings which refer to Ramses prove nothing in favor of 
that hypothesis, as no one will maintain that no warlike king lived in 
Egypt except Sesostris, or after him. When then Herodotus further 
says that Sesostris lived only 900 years before his time, it is known 
from many other examples how uncertain he is in the account of 
numbers, and especially in respect to Egyptian history ; and an author 
to whom in the restoration of an old Egyptian chronology scarcely 
any voice is allowed, cannot indeed alone decide this point in opposi- 
tion to other witnesses. The monument finally, in Syria, with the 



NOTES. 241 

name of Ramses, only proves that a Ramses came thither on his 
march and there immortalized himself in an inscription ; but not that 
Ramses and Sesostris were the same person ; especially as the pe- 
culiar dishonorable images characteristic of Sesostris, of which He- 
rodotus and Manetho concurrently make mention, are not found on 
that monument of Ramses, as Boeckh [page 296] expressly testifies. 
For another view that the Sesostris of the 12th Dynasty of Mane- 
tho was the true Sesostris, the famous conqueror of the world, many 
important reasons may be adduced. Manetho was an Egyptian priest, 
and wrote his history in accordance with the old Egyptian temple- 
archives. He wrote long after Herodotus, knew of his works and 
took every opportunity to correct him ; as, for example, is evident 
from the history of the builders of the pyramids, where on King Su- 
phis he makes use of the words — " He built the great pyramid which 
Herodotus ascribed to Cheops." If therefore one of the Ramessides 
had really been that Sesostris of Herodotus, then Manetho would 
certainly have here made a correction, and said — " To this Ramses 
are ascribed the deeds which Herodotus relates of his Sesostris." 
He does not however do this, but he places a Sesostris, and indeed 
the only Sesostris which he mentions, in the 12th Dynasty, and says 
of him in a few words the same that Herodotus relates about him 
more fully. The popular traditions and the sources which he fol- 
lowed must therefore in Manetho' s time have pointed to the great 
conqueror of the 12th Dynasty, about 2600 years B.C. If on the other 
hand this Sesostris who conquered the whole world was really one -of 
the kings of the 18th or 19th Dynasty, then he lived one or more 
centuries after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, as they 
left in the reign of Amos, the first king of the 18th Dynasty. But 
then it certainly is remarkable that in the Book of Kings there is to 
be found no mention of this mighty foe, for there is no mention here 
of any campaign of this kind. The Israelites during this period only 
fought with their nearest neighbors in Palestine, in the midst of 
whom they dwelt, but never with Egyptian armies of conquest. 
Finally, in Tacitus [Annals. VI. 28] the account is preserved that 
the Phoenix appeared for the first time under Sesostris, and the second 
time under the likewise already-mentioned Amosis, the first king of 
the 18th Dynasty. Sesostris was therefore a whole Phoenix-period 
[according to Lepsius 500, according to Seyffarth 652 years] older 
than Amosis, while those critics would place him some centuries later 
than Amosis. According to Seyffarth, Sesostris falls into the year 
2555, as in his view the first appearance of the Phoenix was in this 

21 



242 NOTES. 

year, and the second in 1904 before Christ. In this time also Orcurti, 
in page 217 of the work heretofore quoted, places him, while he makes 
him reign in the 11th Dynasty, up to 2600 B.C. — But if the Sesostris 
of the 12th Dynasty was indeed an historic person, yet it is by no 
means maintained that all which is related of him is to be regarded 
as unconditionally true historically. He was the national hero, and 
to his name there were probably many things transferred by which 
the name of a great monarch could be glorified but which otherwise 
did not belong to him. Thus he was a victor and a great conqueror, 
the founder of the political division of the country, and of the canal 
so full of blessing for the fruit-fulness of the land, the famous law- 
giver, and finally the builder of magnificent temples, palaces and 
monuments. Compare Heeren Ideen ueber die Politik, &c, Wien. 
1817, II. 2, p. 81. 

We cast now a look at Sethos, often interchanged with Sesostris. 
Compare as above Riihle von Lilienstern, p. 72. Respecting him Jo- 
sephus communicates to us [against Apion, I. 15] the following par- 
ticulars from Manetho : — " Sethos, who is likewise called Ramses, 
possessed a cavalry and a navy. He appointed his brother Armais 
as the representative of his sovereignty, and gave over to him the 
whole kingly power ; only he prohibited him from wearing a diadem 
or showing indecorum to the queen and mother of his children, and re- 
quired him to refrain from the other royal wives. But he himself un- 
dertook a campaign to Cyprus and Phenicia, and then against the 
Assyrians and Medes. All these he subjected to himself partly by force, 
and partly without a single blow by the fear which his mighty host in- 
spired. As his courage increased, he pressed boldly forward and 
subdued the cities and countries which are situated toward the East. 
But after some time his brother Armais whom he had left behind in 
Egypt began to act contrary to all that Sethos had forbidden and 
refused him. He violently possessed himself of the queen, and reck- 
lessly and continually served himself of the other wives of the king ; 
and finally, advised by his friends, took the royal diadem and openly 
revolted from his brother. But the high-priest of Egypt informed 
Sethos by letter what had taken place. On this account he immedi- 
ately relinquished his conquests, returned to Pelusium and again took 
possession of his kingdom." He then further says that Armais was 
also called Danaos, and was banished by his brother from the country. 

The cause of uniting Sethos and Sesostris was doubtless the resem- 
blance of the narrations of Josephus as to Sethos, and of Herodotus 
as to Sesostris. But the similarity is not so important as it might 



NOTES. 243 

appear at a hasty glance ; on the contrary, there are many wholly 
different features in them. They both indeed were conquerors, but 
Sesostris reached much further than Sethos-Ramses : Sesostris re- 
turned after he had subdued the whole world, Sethos after a short 
period was recalled by the high-priest; the faithless brother of Se- 
sostris rebelled after his return, that of Sethos during his absence; 
the former sought to destroy his brother with all his family, the lat- 
ter arrogated to himself only the throne, diadem and wives of his 
brother ; the former was executed, the latter banished. In short all 
is different. The only agreement is that of two treacherous brothers 
who grasped after the crown of the sovereign at a distance, who had 
gone forth on conquests, and this circumstance, if not often repeated, 
might occur certainly twice in almost a thousand years, just as in a 
space of fifty, two Napoleons have twice founded a French imperial 
throne; but both need not therefore be regarded as one person. 
From all these reasons the Sesostris of the Greeks must be fixed in the 
12th Dynasty and decidedly separated from the Ramessides. — For the 
comparison with what is related finally, the legendary fates of Osiris 
are worthy of attention, who likewise after long and distant warlike 
expeditions returning back victorious to Egypt had to fall a victim to 
the wiles of his brother Typhon. Compare Thoth, pp. 51-58. 

(18) p. 180. The Cat was one of the most sacred animals uni- 
versally honored in Egypt. Herodotus, II. 66, relates the following 
fable of the priests: — ''If a fire breaks out a divine enthusiasm 
seizes on the Cats. The Egyptians regard then only the Cats without 
any thought of extinguishing the fire; but the Cats creep through 
under the men or spring away over them, and rush into the fire. 
When this takes place there bursts forth an universal wailing. But 
in the house where the Cat dies a natural death all the inhabitants 
shave off their eyebrows." The dead Cats, like men, were carefully 
embalmed, wrapped in linen bandages and laid away in sacred chests 
in Bubastis, where they have a common tomb. Such Cat-mummies 
are found in great numbers and brought into the European museums. 
The designed death of any one of the sacred animals was punished 
with death, with the exception of the Cat and the Ibis; for whoever 
had the misfortune to be guilty of the death of one of these two ani- 
mals was unconditionally obnoxious to death, whether he did it pur- 
posely or not. The reverence paid to this sacred animal continued 
even to much later times. When Ptolemy Philometor had not yet 
secured the friendship of the Romans, and the people zealously en- 
deavored to gain those of them who were present in Egypt by at ten- 



244 NOTES. 

tive civilities of all kinds, at a period when from fear they were care- 
ful not to give any occasion for controversy or war, a Roman had the 
imprudence to kill a cat. Then the people assembled around the house 
of the criminal, and neither the messengers from the king for the 
quieting of the multitude nor the universal fear of Rome could save 
the unfortunate man from punishment, though he had only undesign- 
edly killed the sacred animal. This Diodorus himself saw with his 
own eyes when he was in Egypt, [I. 83.] — The Cat was consecrated to 
the two goddesses Isis and Pascht, which by some, as for example by 
Bunsen, II. 491, are united in one person. Both of them frequently 
bear in the pictures or statues in place of a man's head the head of 
a Cat, on a round disk of the moon, about which the primitive ser- 
pent coils itself. Compare Bunsen, Plate XT. The latter, Pascht or 
Bubastis, is compared by Herodotus, II. 137, to the Grecian Artemis ; 
and when Stephen of Byzantium says that the Egyptians called the 
Cat Bubastis [ol J' Ab/virriov JSbvftacrov rbv ai?iovp6v tyaoi] they may 
have regarded this name "the Bubastic" as that of the sacred animal 
Bubastis. 

(19) p. 187. The kingdom of the blessed is represented in the 
Book of the Bead, Plate XLI. Just as given in the already earlier- 
mentioned Essay, [Todtengericht bei Alten iEgypten, Berlin, 1854,] 
this picture of the heavenly family-economy is in a certain measure 
to be called dramatic, since everywhere that the space allowed their 
names, actions and words are marked above the persons represented. 
Compare Thoth, pp. 60, 128. The whole picture [Plate XLI.] is en- 
circled by the waters of a heavenly Nile, and it is intersected and 
divided in three separate divisions, standing above each other, by the 
same Nile. In the uppermost on the right we see first the god Thoth, 
with the head of an Ibis, and the style and writing-tablet in his hands ; 
here he corresponds entirely to the 'Ep/zjyc ipvxo7roju7r6g of the Greeks, 
and conducts the dead who has been justified in the court of the 
dead into the kingdom of the lower world. On the left hand of Thoth 
stands the just-introduced dead person, who may be easily known by 
his name marked above him. This name Lepsius reads Aufanch ; 
Seyffath on the other hand, Ahap Anuk. The former gives no etymo- 
logical meaning, the latter is translated by " Friend of Anuke." 
Compare Seyffarth, Theol. Schriften der Alt. ^gypt. p. 2. The de- 
ceased is pictured out most exactly three times near each other in 
different positions in order to express the emotions of the soul which 
possessed him on his first entrance. These are humility, astonish- 
ment and gratitude. As a humble being he has his hands hanging 



NOTES. 245 

down and his head bowed ; as astonished he appears to be admiring 
the glories of the heavenly kingdom with uplifted hands ; and finally 
as grateful he presents an offering and comes forward with a censer 
in his hand to a table of offerings, full of fruits, bread and a slain 
goose, behind which on elegant pedestals sit three divinities, and 
above them stands written in hieroglyphics "the three great gods," 
who no doubt are the rulers of the three Trines of the zodiac and the 
three Egyptian seasons. [There is another explanation in Seyffarth, 
ut supra, p. 35.] Further to the left the same deceased person sails 
on a bark furnished with a sacrificial table, past many heavenly coun- 
tries and cities, and a writing affixed above announces — "Osiris Ahap- 
Anuk sails with his bark on the way prescribed to him;" then he 
brings the world-soul again as an offering to the Creator and to the 
other gods. The second and middle division represents the heavenly 
family and the heavenly cultivation of the land entirely similar to 
the earthly. We see here advancing nearest from the right to the 
left the deceased ploughing with a plough drawn by two cattle, and 
then also near by sowing the seed ; above it stands the hieroglyphic 
words — "Ploughing and Sowing." Further to the left we see him as 
a reaper, with a sickle in his hand and busy in cutting the ears, and 
next follows a threshing-floor, on which are two cattle treading out 
the grain while they are driven by him with a whip. A longer in- 
scription says in these words — "Description of the harvest which em- 
braces the irrigation of the Nile, ploughing, sowing and growth; 
further the mowing of the sheaves, a threshing-floor proper for the 
" place, then the treading out on the threshing-floor ; finally the separa- 
tion of the chaff and the grain with the winnowing-fan." To these 
last words refer two vessels standing near each other, of which the 
one is filled with chaff and the other with grain. Compare Thoth, p. 
104. In the conclusion of this division we see the blessed one anew 
giving thanks, praising, praying and bringing his offering. Here too 
he appears again as at the beginning, in threefold positions : he praises 
the divinity rich in blessing with upraised hands ; he prays kneeling, 
and has also his right hand laid on his heart ; and finally in the third 
place he stands again before a table of offerings, behind which the 
Nile-god sits enthroned in his chair, with a lotus-blossom on his head 
and the sceptre in his hand. Above the offerer stands — "Osiris .... 
the Just;" the name of the deceased, which was to be inserted be- 
tween the two words, has been left out through the negligence of the 
scribe, as the written rolls of this kind destined for the dead were 
wont to be prepared beforehand, and there was afterward inserted in 

21* 



246 NOTES. 

all the necessary places where the discourse was of the dead, to- 
gether with Osiris, also the name of the blessed one referred to ; on 
which account as here also this addition might easily be forgotten 
and overlooked in some places. Over this Nile-god are found the 
words — " Hapi-M6u, Father of the Gods." That the Nile was honored 
in almost all the cities of Egypt as a distinct god is evident from the 
fact related by Herodotus, II. 90, that when any one was drowned in 
the Nile and was driven ashore near a city, the priests of the Nile must 
embalm him and solemnly bury him. There was likewise a special 
festival celebrated to his honor which began about the time of the 
longest day, and so at the commencement of the swelling of the Nile, 
and in which the river-god was called on to produce an overflow rich 
in blessing. 

Finally the third and lowest division contains two harbors con- 
nected with the water that streams around the whole picture, in each 
of which there is a bark. They are called the " Harbors for the ships 
of the powerful;" and of these two barks, according to the inscrip- 
tion, one is for the Sun, the other for the Moon, that in them they 
may steer through the heavenly waters. The bark of the sun bears 
a pair of stairs, that of the moon, on the other hand, a throne-chair ; 
the latter is furnished with eight rowers, by which also is signified 
the rapidity with which she circles about the heaven compared to 
the bark of the sun. On the right side of this lower division the 
water represented divides into several arms, by which the dwellings 
of every one of the particular divinities are bounded. On both sides 
of the whole picture in the Turin papyrus stands a long prayer, [Book 
of the Dead, chap. cxxx. a,~\ which is put in the mouth of the de- 
ceased and spoken by him with upraised arms, in reference to the 
represented kingdom of the blessed. 

(20) p. 189. The duration and meaning of the Phoenix-period has 
been treated by no one more correctly, scientifically and with greater 
discrimination than by Seyffarth, who after close examination of all 
the sources belonging to it has proved that the Phoenix signified the 
planet Mercury, and his burning of himself the transit of the planet 
through the sun's disk — an astronomical event which repeats itself 
every 652 years, shortly after the spring equinox. Compare Zeit- 
schrift der deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, 1849, p. 63; 
Thoth, p. 226; and Seyffarth, Berichtungen der Geschichte und 
Zeitrechnung, p. 250. This explanation, which we will not here dis- 
cuss anew, has hitherto found neither an opposer of name nor a scien- 
tific contradiction; for a notable unsupported ridicule by a name- 



NOTES. 247 

less reviewer of it [Leipz. Liter. Central Blatt, 1856, No. 25,] is 
scarcely worth notice, and not to be named a contradiction, with 
however much assurance he has sought to make himself of import- 
ance. Full of errors and contradictions on the other hand is the ex- 
planation of the Phoenix fable in Lepsius' Chronologie, p. 108, &c, in 
which likewise the sources relating to it are not properly used and kept 
in view. Compare Leipzig er Repertorium der Liter atur, 1849, II. 
vol. i.. St. s. 14. In the above-mentioned work it is attempted to 
prove that the Phoenix " means the soul purified by the circle of its 
wanderings." Pliny's account [Nat. His. X. 2] that the Phoenix- 
period lasted 540 years, in p. 170, is changed into 1464 years, be- 
cause, according to the opinion of the author, mdlxi. could easily be 
read instead of dxl. ; though Solinus clearly writes quingenti quadri- 
genti anni. Besides the just-mentioned account of Pliny, the 500 
years of Herodotus and others, the 1000 years of Lactantius, and the 
7006 years in Tzetzes, none are further named or noticed, and it is 
asserted, p. 181, — "I have by careful comparison been able to fincl out 
no others among the ancients." — Shortly after, p. 189, note 3, we read 
the words " Suidas v. <f>oivit;;" yet the number given by Suidas of 654 
years is nowhere brought into the investigation. Now it is likewise 
maintained that the Phoenix-period was originally not different from 
the Sothis-period that embraced 1500 figurative years, and was 
reckoned from the days of the summer solstice. If we take from the 
1500 years one-half or two-thirds, we arrive at the 500 of Herodotus 
and 1000 of Lactantius. The period properly lasted 1505 years, but 
this small variation is hardly worth mentioning, p. 1 87 ; it indeed began 
according to Pliny, Syncellus and others, not at the solstitial Thoth 
but at the spring equinox, on which account, without anything fur- 
ther, these two writers are accused of an error. The appearances of 
the Phoenix testified to by the ancients do not agree with this ex- 
planation, and it is said, p. 189, — "It is clear that some misunder- 
standing must have crept in there, because the times of the reigns of 
the kings named, which are sufficiently well known to us, cannot be 
harmonized with any view of the return of the Phoenix." According 
to Pliny he appeared 215 years before 97 B.C., on which account ccxv. 
is changed into ccxxv. and the latter again into mccxxv. in order to 
bring out the year 1322 B.C. ; according to Tacitus he appeared un- 
der the third of Lagidae, and as this again does not suit, so it is said, 
p. 189, — "But this opinion is obviously incorrect. Tacitus must 
either here himself have committed an error, or have incorrectly un- 
derstood his authority." According to the same Tacitus, further 



248 NOTES. 

[Am. VI. 28] the Phoenix came the first time under Sesostris, the 
second time under Amosis ; and in order to explain this, the author 
thinks of Amosis, and assumes [p. 189] a half Phoenix-period of 250 
years ; and finally the above-mentioned Sesostris [p. 190] is not the 
famous one, but Sesostris Ramses II., with whom again the later war- 
like Ramses III. must be confounded. In short all the old authors 
have erred and made false reckoning, only not so the author of the 
celebrated Chronology. Finally the appearances of the Phoenix re- 
presented on the money are hardly alluded to, as they could not con- 
firm the proposed hypothesis, much more indeed, would have militated 
against it. Then further, on p. 196, it is said, "This Phoenix-period 
being placed beyond a doubt," — yet a doubt may be allowed to the 
thoughtful reader until all the points which remain obscure in this 
inquiry are cleared up. In general there are in the book many 
incorrect numbers on which false estimates are founded, and which 
also cannot be removed by the denial in the Leipzig Literary Central 
Blatt, [as above.] Did the reviewer not examine the book, or did 
he wish in the author's favor to be guilty of a falsehood by main- 
taining as to its inconclusiveness that there was nothing of the 
kind to be found in the passages referred to ? From a regard to 
truth we must therefore here once more minutely return to it. 
Lepsius, in his above-mentioned work, p. 168, says, — " Clemens 
Alexandrinus .... who relates that the exodus of the Israelites 
followed 345 [three hundred and forty-five] years before the Sothis- 
period." On the contrary it is likewise said, some pages later, [171, 
172,] — "If we now, according to the concurrent accounts of Manilius, 
Censorinus and Theon, have been brought to the year 1322 B.C. as 
the close of the last Sothis-period, and we afterward turn to the pas- 
sage of Clemens, it is clear that he in making the exodus of the Is- 
raelites to fall 245 [two hundred and forty -five] years before the Sothis- 
period, places it in the year 1567 B.C." This is not an easily admitted 
and pardonable error of the printer ; but as every one may see, the 
false figures 245 are employed in the calculation, and it is said of 
Clemens that he referred the exodus of the Israelites to the incorrect 
year 1567. Compare the Leipzig Repertorium der Literatur, 1849, 
II. 1, S. 4. Just so in respect to the dates in the Book of Kings, from 
the Exodus to the death of Solomon, it is reckoned "not much over 
three hundred years," &c. 

(21) p. 208. All the sports and popular amusements are repre- 
sented and explained in Rosellini and Wilkinson according to the 
monuments, and also in a short but most interesting treatise 



NOTES. 249 

of Minutoli, — " Social Sports and Gymnastic Exercises among the 
Old Egyptians," Illust. Zeitung VII. 1852, p. 831. The pictures 
there given are — 1. The play of Morra; 2. Odd or even; 3. Game of 
draughts ; 4. Ramses playing draughts ; 5 and 6. Draught-men ; 7. 
Chess-men; 8. Hoop-players; 9 and 10. Throwing the spear; 11. 
Blind-plays ; 12-14. Gymnastic Exercises ; 15. Boxers ; 16-22. 
Wrestlers ; 23. A sham-fight on the water ; 24-26. Bull fights ; 
27-29. Throwing the quoit; 30 and 31. Balls; 32-34. Ball-play; 
35-40. Dancers ; 41-46. Balancers ; 47. Jugglers. 

(22) p. 209. While the origin of Thebes, in Upper Egypt, falls into 
an ante-historical-period, all old authors place the founding, establish- 
ing and beautifying of the second capital, Memphis — the extent of 
which, later, according to Diodorus, was 150 stadia, and thus about 
nine miles — in the time of the reigns of the first kings, and connect 
it with the so-called Menes, the first sole sovereign of the country, 
who followed directly upon the reigns of the gods, by which probably 
are to be understood the original priestly-colonies and the rule of the 
gods introduced by them. Menes must have been sole sovereign of 
the whole country, as all the lists of the Egyptian Dynasties which 
we possess unitedly begin with Menes, however much they may vary 
from each other in the names of the other kings. Up to the time of 
this Menes the whole Delta was a marsh and uninhabitable ; but he 
saw the place there for the future capital, and sought to protect it 
from overflow by dams and canals. From Herodotus, II. 99, the fol- 
lowing is evident: — "The Nile ran formerly along the sandy moun- 
tain-chain of Lybia. Menes dammed up the bend of the river above, 
about one hundred stadia from Memphis, by which the stream re- 
ceived another direction ; the old bed of the river was laid bare, and 
it was forced to flow between the two mountain-chains." Even yet in 
Herodotus' s time this bend of the Nile, forced in by a dam, was care- 
fully examined by the Persians and improved in damaged places, be- 
cause it was feared that the whole of Memphis might be swallowed 
up by the river if it should at any time break through and overflow. 
After now Menes had rendered dry the land so dammed up he built 
the city of Memphis in the mountain vale of Egypt, on the west side 
of the river, and laid the foundation of the great and famous temple 
of Hephaistos, [Ptah.] This account of Herodotus in respect to the 
damming up of the western arm of the Nile has been fully confirmed 
by modern investigations. Compare Bunsen, II. p, 40, and Wilkin- 
son's Topography of Thebes, p. 341. Menes, according to Manetho 
and Eratosthenes, was a Thinite, born in the city of This, near Aby- 



250 NOTES. 

dos, and from this place lie appears to have founded his sole sove- 
reignty and there reigned, and afterward removed his royal seat to the 
newly-founded city of Memphis. Of his son and successor, Athothis, 
Manetho says, " He built the royal palace in Memphis." But as re- 
lates to the name of the city, Plutarch explains it, [de Iside et de 
Osiride, chap, xx.] "Haven of Good," or "Haven of the Good," 
[bpfuog aya&ov;'] and this the Old Egyptian Man nufi really indicates, 
from which afterward came 3femphi, Mephi, and finally arose the name 
of the now Arabic village Menf, situated in the same spot. The two 
Hebrew names Moph and Noph [Hos. ix. 6; Isa. xix. 13] are con- 
tracted from the same form. In the hieroglyphics the city is called 
Manvf and Panuf. Compare the author's Inscriptionis Roseitanse de- 
cretum sacerdotale, Lips. 1853-4, pp. 39, 131. 

The famous temple of Ptah frequently mentioned and described in 
the preceding tale, was according to Herodotus [as above] likewise a 
work of Menes. But he only laid the foundation and erected the 
temple-buildings proper, while many later kings contributed to its 
extension, beautifying and decoration. The well-known king Moeris, 
who is looked upon by the ancients as the author of the Lake Moeris, 
named after him, and whose tomb Herodotus fully describes, adorned 
the temple by propyls on the north side ; the famous Sesostris, with 
the aid of the prisoners brought back from his warlike expeditions, 
enlarged it, and erected before it six stone statues, which represented 
himself, his wife and his four children; the covetous and greedy king 
Rhampsinitus, known by his treasure-house, one of the Ramessides, 
the first king of the 20th Dynasty, built the propylae on the west 
side, while those toward the east and south owe their origin to Ary- 
chis and Psammetichus. The latter also added over against the pro- 
pyls a court for Apis, in which he was thenceforth taken care of, 
which was surrounded with galleries and covered with hieroglyphic 
pictures, and instead of pillars had collossi twelve ells high, [Herod. 
II. 153; Strabo, XVII. 64.] Finally Amosis erected on the same 
portion of the temple a colossus of seventy-five feet high, and two 
smaller ones of Ethiopian stone, each of which was twenty feet high. 
Compare Thoth, p. 46. In yet later times also much was done for the 
adorning and preserving of the temple on the part of the kings. The 
Inscription of Rosetta relates for example, in its Greek portions, [lines 
29-35,] of Ptolemy V., that he had freed the temple from taxes of all 
kinds, had bestowed on Apis, Moeris and the other sacred animals 
rich presents, employed large sums in sacrifices and festivals, provided 
the Sanctuary of Apis with elegant additional buildings, newly- 



NOTES. 251 

erected temples, chapels and altars, or caused those which required 
it to be improved and renovated. But that this temple of Ptah itself 
maintained and preserved to the latest times its old venerable privi- 
lege is especially evident from this, that the same Ptolemy adhered to 
the ancient custom of the earlier kings, solemnly entered in procession 
the temple and submitted there to the consecration of the priests, from 
which no king at his entrance on his reign dared to withdraw himself. 
Compare Inscript. von Rosette, line 44, and Polybius, xviii. 38. 

(23) p. 217. Although the foregoing two hieroglyphic lines in some 
of the images betray the still uneducated hand of a child, yet the . 
single figures may be easily compared with the hieroglyphics on the 
splendid monuments and the rolls of papyrus wrought by skilful 
scribes, and must be briefly explained here. In this the following 
rules are to be observed: — 

1. The hieroglyphics were written on columns from the right to the 
left and from the top downward. In the former (?) case if several stand 
ebove one another they are to be read from the top to the bottom ; if 
in the latter(?) case several stand near each other, they are to be read 
from the right to the left. 

2. The views of Champollion and his successors [Lepsius, Brugsch, 
de Rouge, &c] are often false and contradictory, — as that a great 
part of the hieroglyphic images are to be explained symbolically ; 
they are much more, without exception, partly letters and partly signs 
of syllables. 

3. The figures express either the letters with whieh the name begins, 
[letter signs,] or the consonants which contain the name, consisting 
for the most part of two consonants and a vowel interposed between. 
For example, the foot \_paf\ has the sound of P ; the serpent [set] 
expresses the syllable ST. 

4. The vowels, as in all Oriental languages, are mostly not expressed, 
and are only added when there is reason to fear a misunderstanding. 

5. Sometimes behind a sign of a syllable two, or at least its last 
consonant, are once more expressed by other signs, in order to 
guard against any ambiguity, [Phonetic marks of distinction.] 

6. The Old Egyptian language is to be explained by the Coptic, 
and is only distinguished from this latter language by greater 
simplicity and a less-developed grammar. The article of the femi- 
nine gender and the designations of the persons in the verb in the 
Old Egyptian language stand after the words to which they belong, 
(suffixes,) while in the Coptic they come first, (prefixes.) Compare 
the author's Lingux Coptics Grammatiea, Lips. 1853, pp. 12, 14. 



252 



NOTES. 



The single figures of the writing in question denote the following 
letters or syllables:* 

Line 1. Line 2. 



Foot, B or P, 35. 

Quadrant, K, 56. 

Feet, ER, AR, S. 207. 

Mouth, HR, 26. 

Plan of a city, BK, 69. 

Half-circle, (mountain,) T, 6. The 
feminine article standing after 
the noun. 

Leaf, (Champoll., leaf of cala- 
mus,) A, 57. 

Bird, 0, U, 47. 

Serpent, ST, ZT, 54. 

Fringe, T, R. 108. 

Line of waves, N, 8. 

Little man, RM, S. 43. 

Three strokes. Sign of the plural. 

Bowl, NB, 83. 

Square, P, PT, 86. 

Ear ? S. (Todtenbuch, i. 11, 
cxxxiii. 9 ; Bunsen, i. p. 687, 
No. 8.) 

Owl, M, 46. 

Handle-basket, K, 84, 2d pers. 
singular. 

Leaf, A, 57. 

Bird, 0, U, 47. 

If we supply to these hieroglyphic al consonants the vowels wanting, 
we have the following Old Egyptian words : 

BoK eR HaRo BaKi-T AuO ZoT eN NiBi Pe T Sme-K AuO. 

PeT Ro'Si-K HJ PaNuB T-BaKi HA ABeT PTaH HaTiR ANK 
ZoT TeNe. 



Square, P, PT, 86. 
Half-circle, T, 6. 
Eye-balls, R, S. 135. 
Sickle, S, S. 605. 
Handle-basket, K, 84, as above. 
Face, H, R. 18. 
Stroke, J, S. 35. 
Foot, P, as before. 
Bowl, NB, 83. 
Half-circle, T, 6. 
Plan of a city, BK, 69. 
f Sling, H, 91. 
t Arm, A, 28. 
Temple, Abet. 
Square, P, 86. 
Half-circle, T, 6. 
Sling, H, 91. 
Hammer, HTR, 77. 
Handle-cross, ANK, S. 202. 
Serpent, ST, ZT, 54. 
Half-circle, T, 6. 

Stroke, shortened from the wave- 
line, N, 8. 



* The simple numbers refer to my Glossary in De Veterum jfflgyp- 
tiorum lingua et Uteris, Lips. 1851, pp. 77-100; the letter R to my 
Alphabet in Insci'iptionis Rosettanze decretum Sacerdotale, Lips. 1853, 
pp. 113-120; and the letter S to Seyffarth's Grammatica JEgyptiaca, 
Goth. 1855, in the lithographed Appendix. 



NOTES. 253 

Or in Coptic — 

Ari-bok haro ti-baki auo zot en-romi nibi pet ak-sme auo 
Go into the city and say to men all what you heard and 

pet ak rosi hi Panuph ha abet Ptah hatir ( I TISt) 

what you saw in Memphis, and in the house of Ptah the God, 

ank zot tene. 

the living without end. 

The passages in which the same groups of hieroglyphics are found 
with the same meaning are the following : 

Bok, go, Inscrip. von Rosette, line 5. Er, Ari, make ; here make as 
a designation of the imperative, lb. lines 5, 8, 13. Haro, in, lb. line 8. 
Baki, city, lb. lines 8, 9. Auo, and, lb. lines 11, 13. Zot, say, relate, 
Todtenbuch, ii. 2, iii. 1, iv. 2. Romi, men, Inscrip. v. Rosette, line 11; 
Todtenbuch, cxxiv. 4. Nibi, all, Inscrip. v. Rosette, lines 6, 8, 10, 11, 
&c. Pet, what, lb. line 6 ; Todtenbuch, xcii. 3. Sme, heard, Todten- 
buch, i. 11, cxxxiii. 9. Rosi, saw, Todtenbuch, i. 11. Hi, in, Inscrip. 
v. Rosette, lines 7, 8, 9, 10. Panub, Memphis, lb. line 9. Ha, and 
or in, lb. lines 5, 7, 11. Abet, house, temple, lb. line 9. Ptah, 
Ptah, lb. in many places ; Todtenbuch, xlii. 7. Hatir, God, compare 
the author's Inscript. v. Ross., p. 135. Ank zot tene, living without 

END, ETERNALLY LIVING, aloVofitOC, lb. p. 160. 

(24) Appendix to pages 182 and 219. The king's name, Osi- 
mandyas, which Diodorus writes Osymandyas, Strabo Ismandes, is to be 
translated according to the hieroglyphics, especially on the Fla- 
minian obelisk in Rome, by Os-ma-n-Ptah, the much-beloved of 
Ptah. 



THE END. 



22 



ERRATA. 



The distance of the translator from the press and the necessity of 
hurriedly reading the proofs by night have caused some errors to 
escape his notice which, or any others, the reader will please correct. 

Page 25, line 12 from the bottom, for lightening read lightning. 



" 68, 


< 15 


top, 


a 


secret read decree. 


" 76, 


4 9 < 


i iC 


a 


on read in. 


" 89, 


Note f, 




a 


Zeitshcrift read Zeitschrift. 


" 99, 


" 19 


i a 




insert a before pointed. 


" 100, 


< 15 


i a 




insert an before account. 


" 123, 


< 12 


< bottom, 


a 


Hieroskolists read Hierostolists. 


:i 191, 


i 14 


i a 


a 


or read nor. 


- 196, 


4 5 


' top, 


a 


quickens read quicken. 


" 197, 


i 14 


i ii 


a 


kardamon read kardamomon. 


" 210, « 


4 15 


i ii 


a 


land read canal. 


" 210, 


< 20 


i ii 




insert and after them. 


« 211, < 


4 15 


i ii 


a 


above read more than. 


« 211, 


< 4 


' bottom, 


" 


but read ft7Z. 


" 211, 


< 3 


i a 


a 


has been read was. 


" 215, 


* 10 


i 


a 


might read may. 


" 221, 


< 18 


i a 


a 


«s read are. 


" 221, b 


ottom line 


, for to what 


flames he is hurled down read who 




Awfo efowr 


to flames. 






" 226, li 


ne 2 from 


the top, 


for are read is. 


" 226, 


< 9 


i a 


ik 


were read was. 


" 226, ' 


< 22 ' 


i a 




erase /rora before thence. 


" 227, < 


4 3 


' bottom, 


a 


Alexandricus read Alexandrinus. 


" 231, ' 


< 19 


i a 




transpose were rendered necessary 
to the end of the next line. 


" 232, 


* 18 


6 ii 


" 


gifts read gift. 


" 237, 


< 13 


top, 


" 


of read from. 


" 240, 


4 6 


i a 


a 


altesten read altesten. 



Where the word Horoscope occurs as a person, the word Horoscopist 
may.be read. 






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V* 















VJ 















* ' '/ " 




-V\— >0"V 
















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ft v 









